242 CHAPTER 6
recent word or words out of memory (Bjork & Whitten, 1974; Murdock, 1962). The serial
position effect works with many different kinds of information. In fact, business schools
often teach their students that they should try not to be “in the middle” for job inter-
views. Going first or last in the interview process is much more likely to make a person’s
interview more memorable.
Can knowledge of the serial position effect be of help to students trying to
remember the information they need for their classes? Yes—students can take advantage
of the recency effect by skimming back over their notes just before an exam. Knowing
that the middle of a list of information is more likely to be forgotten means that stu-
dents should pay more attention to that middle, and breaking the study sessions up into
smaller segments helps reduce the amount of “middle to muddle.” (Students can also
use mnemonic strategies to help offset this memory problem, as well as others.
to Learning Objective PIA.6.) Watch the video Methods for Remembering for additional
mnemonic strategies.
Speaking of students and classes, practicing retrieval is obviously very important
to the process of learning. In education, this is often called the testing effect, the fact that
long-term memory is increased when students practice retrieving the information to be
learned (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011; Karpicke, 2012; Pyc et al., 2014; Roediger & Karpicke,
2006). Retrieval practice is essentially what testing is all about, so even though you might
want to groan over yet another test your instructor hands out, be grateful—it’s all in the
best interests of memory!
RECOGNITION: HEY, DON’T I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE? The other form of mem-
ory retrieval is recognition, the ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to aThese people are waiting to audition for
a play. The person who auditioned first
and the one who auditioned last have the
greatest chance of being remembered when
the time comes for the director to choose.
The serial position effect will cause the
impression made by the actors who come in
the “middle” to be less memorable.
Figure 6.6 Serial Position Effect
In the serial position effect, information at the beginning of a list will be recalled at a higher rate than informa-
tion in the middle of the list (primacy effect), because the beginning information receives more rehearsal and
may enter LTM. Information at the end of a list is also retrieved at a higher rate (recency effect), because the
end of the list is still in STM, with no information coming after it to interfere with retrieval.70Primacy effectRecency effectPosition in list6050403020(^02468101214)
Per
cent corr
ect
Interactive