Serial position (case study)

• PRIMACY EFFECT-

  The primacy effect refers to the superior recall of items that appear at the beginning of a list. This is because items that are presented early in the list have more to be rehearsed and transferred to long-term memory before subsequent items are presented.

  As a result, these items are more likley to be remembered than items that are presented later. Think like Primary school comes first, so these words are recalled first from the list. you get me?
• RECENCY EFFECT-

  • The recency effect refers to the superior recall of items that appear at the end of a list. This is because items that are presented later in the list are still present in short-term memory, making them easier to recall.
  • As a result, these items are also more likely to be remembered than items in the middle of the list. These are said "most recent" in the list.