Primacy and recency effects (Murdock’s study)

• What is the Primacy and recency effect?

  Words at beginning are remembered more (rehearsed, so in LTM)

  Words at end are remembered more (heard recently so in STM)
• What was the aim of Murdock’s study?

  To see if memory of words is affected by location in a list.
• What was the method of this study?

  Ppts listened to 20 word lists with 10-40 words on them, recalled words after each list.
• What were the results of this study?

  Recall related to position of words. Higher recall for first words (primacy effect) and last words (recency effect) than in the middle.
• What can be concluded from this study?

  Shows the serial position effect and supports the MSM stores.
• What is a negative evaluation of this study?

  Artificial task

  Word lists were used which is only one type of memory, so study lacks validity.
• What is a positive evaluation of this study?

  Controlled lab study.

  There was a high level of control so it could be concluded position of words determined recall.