US High School Psychology Practice Exam

The _________ is the tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle.

1. Recency effect

2. Primacy effect

3. Serial position effect

4. Chunking effect

The correct answer is: Serial position effect

The concept you are looking for is the serial position effect, which encapsulates the tendency for individuals to have improved recall for items at the beginning (primacy effect) and the end (recency effect) of a list while experiencing relatively poorer recall for items presented in the middle. This phenomenon is rooted in the structure of memory, where the first items take advantage of longer rehearsal time, making them more memorable, while the last items benefit from being in short-term memory at the time of recall. In contrast, the primacy effect specifically refers to the superior recall of the first few items in a sequence, and the recency effect pertains to the recall of the most recent items. Chunking, on the other hand, is a mnemonic device that involves grouping information into larger, manageable units to enhance memory and is not directly related to the positioning of items within a list. Recognizing the distinction between these terms helps in understanding how memory functions in related contexts.