Murdock's serial position curve study

• What is the primacy effect in memory?

  Words at the start of a list are better remembered
• What is the recency effect in memory?

  Words at the end of a list are remembered more
• Why are words at the beginning of a list remembered better?

  They have been rehearsed into long-term memory
• Why are words at the end of a list remembered better?

  They are still in short-term memory
• What did Murdock investigate in his memory study?

  The effect of word position on memory
• What was the aim of Murdock's study?

  To see how word position affects memory
• From where were the words used in Murdock's study selected?

  The 4,000 most common English words
• How many words were there on each list used by Murdock?

  From 10 to 40 words
• How many lists did participants listen to in Murdock's study?

  20
• What did participants do after listening to each list in Murdock's experiment?

  Recalled the words
• What was related to the position of the word in the list?

  Recall
• Which parts of the word list had higher recall in Murdock's study?

  The first and last words
• What effect did Murdock identify based on his findings?

  Serial position effect
• What does the serial position effect suggest?

  Word position affects recall likelihood
• What memory model do Murdock's results support?

  Multi-store model (MSM)
• According to MSM, why were the first few words better recalled?

  They were rehearsed into LTM
• According to the MSM, why were the last few words better recalled?

  They are in STM
• What type of study was Murdock's experiment?

  Controlled lab study
• Why is being a controlled lab study a strength?

  Things could be controlled
• What is one factor that could be controlled in Murdock's study?

  Familiarity of the words
• What did the controlled conditions allow Murdock to be more certain of?

  Word position affected recall
• What is a weakness of Murdock's study?

  The task was artificial
• What relates to just one type of memory in Murdock's study?

  Lists of words
• Why might the results of Murdock's study not relate to everyday memory?

  Due to the artificial task
• What type of amnesiacs support Murdock's conclusions?

  Those who can't store LTMs
• Which effect was not shown by amnesiacs who can't store long-term memories?

  Primacy effect
• Which effect was shown by amnesiacs who can't store long-term memories?

  Recency effect
• What does the lack of a primacy effect in some amnesiacs suggest?

  Primacy effect relates to LTM