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256 CHAPTER 8
80
Tested immediately
Primacy
Test delayed by 30 seconds
70
Recency
60
Proportion correct
50
40
30
No recency
20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Position in original list
FIGURE 8.6
The serial position effect. Immediate recall of a word list produces a serial position curve, where primacy
and recency effects are both evident. However, even a delay of 15 to 30 seconds in recall (during which
rehearsal is prevented) eliminates the recency effect, indicating that the later items in the word list have
disappeared from short-term memory. SOURCE: Adapted from Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966.
study during final exams, when you have felt as if
there is no room for storing so much as one more
new fact inside your brain. Yet as far as we know,
long-term storage capacity essentially is unlim-
ited, and once formed, a long-term memory can
endure for up to a lifetime.
Are short-term and long-term memory really
distinct? Case studies of amnesia victims like
H. M. suggest so. If you told H. M. your name or
some fact, he could remember it briefly but could
not form a long-term memory of it. Experiments
in which people with normal memory learn lists
of words also support this distinction. Suppose
that we present you with a series of 15 unrelated
words, one word at a time. Immediately after see-
ing or hearing the last word, you are to recall as
many words as you can, in any order you wish. As
Figure 8.6 illustrates, most experiments find that
words at the end and beginning of a list are the
easiest to recall. This U-shaped pattern is called
the serial position effect, meaning that the ability to
recall an item is influenced by the item’s position in a
series. The serial position effect has two compo-
nents: a primacy effect, reflecting the superior recall
of the earliest items, and a recency effect, represent-
ing the superior recall of the most recent items.
What causes the primacy effect? According
to the three-stage model, as the first few words
enter short-term memory, we can quickly re-
hearse them and transfer them into long-term
memory. However, as the list gets longer, short-
term memory rapidly fills up and there are too
many words to keep repeating before the next
word arrives. Therefore, beyond the first few
words, it is harder to rehearse the items and they
are less likely to get transferred into long-term
memory. If this hypothesis is correct, then the pri-
macy effect should decrease if we are prevented
from rehearsing the early words, say, by being
presented with the list at a faster rate. Indeed, this
is what happens (Glanzer, 1972).
As for the recency effect, the last few words
still linger in short-term memory and have the
benefit of not being bumped out by new informa-
tion. Thus, if we try to recall the list immediately,
all we have to do is recite the last words from
short-term memory before they decay (i.e., fade
away). In sum, according to the three-stage
model, the primacy effect is due to the transfer of
early words into long-term memory, whereas the
recency effect is due to the continued presence of
information in short-term memory.
If this explanation is correct, then it must be
possible to wipe out the recency effect—but not
the primacy effect—by eliminating the last words
from short-term memory. This happens when the
recall test is delayed, even for as little as 15 to
30 seconds, and we are prevented from rehears-
ing the last words. To prevent rehearsal, we might
be asked to briefly count a series of numbers
immediately after the last word is presented
(Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966; Postman & Phillips,
1965). Now by the time we try to recall the last
words, they will have faded from short-term
memory or been bumped out by the numbers task
(6 . . . 7 . . . 8 . . . 9 . . .). Figure 8.6 shows that under
delayed conditions, the recency effect disappears
while the primacy effect remains.
Having examined some basic components of
memory, let us now explore more fully how infor-
mation is encoded, stored, and retrieved.
IN REVIEW
! Memory involves three main processes (encoding,
storage, and retrieval) and three components
(sensory memory, working/short-term memory,
and long-term memory).
! Sensory memory briefly holds incoming sensory
information. Some information reaches working
memory and long-term memory, where it is men-
tally represented by visual, phonological, seman-
tic, or motor codes.