© 2022 JETIR January 2022, Volume 9, Issue 1 www.jetir.

org (ISSN-2349-5162)

PRIMACY AND RECENCY EFFECTS ON

RECALL: EXPERIMENT
J. Nagabhooshanam
Research scholar
Department of Education, Osmania University
Hyderabad, Telangana State, India

Abstract

Serial-position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle
items worst.The term was coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus through studies he performed on himself, and refers
to the finding that recall accuracy varies as a function of an item's position within a study list.When asked to recall
a list of items in any order (free recall), people tend to begin recall with the end of the list, recalling those items
best (the recency effect). Among earlier list items, the first few items are recalled more frequently than the middle
items (the primacy effect).The purpose of this study was to verify effect of serial position effects of memory.
This study was conducted as an experimental method, and 20 adults without cognitive impairment were
participated in the study. The memory task used word list of 40 items. The analysis was performed by dividing
the word items into three conditions: primacy, middle, and recency. Primacy used the first 10 items in the word
list, Middle used the 11thitem to 30thin the middle of the word list, and finally Recency used the last 10 items in
the word list for analysis. The result was F = 6.79 and showed that there was a statistically significant difference
in memory retention of primacy, middle, and recency.

Key words: Primacy effect, Recency effect and Recall

1.0 INTRODUCTION
One of the most commonly used procedures to study memory is the free recall procedure. In a typical free recall
task, the experimenter presents a list of words at a rate of one word for every 3 seconds. The subjects is to recall
items in any order. The results show that the level of recall was highest for the words that had been presented at
the beginning and end of the list (Glanger and Cumitz, 1966). This outcome is called the serial position effect

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because the retention of an item depended upon the position effect in which it had been presented.Serial learning
is one of the methods of verbal learning. Memorization through serial method was first experimented by
Ebbinghaus 1902). Better recall of the words at the beginning of the list contributes to the serial position effect
and is known as the Primacy effect. Itemsencountered/exposed first are remembered relatively well. The better
recall of the words at the end of the list is known as the Recency effect.
Primacy effect:
The primacy effect, in psychology and sociology, is a cognitive bias that results in a subject recalling primary
information presented better than information presented later on.Many investigations believe that the primacy
effect reflects the output of the long term store, whereas the recency effect reflects the output of the short term
store. The subjects rehearse the initial items frequently thereby transferring the items to the long term store and
this long term store accounts for the primacy effect.The primacy effect is reduced when items are presented
quickly and is enhanced when presented slowly (factors that reduce and enhance processing of each item and thus
permanent storage). Longer presentation lists have been found to reduce the primacy effect.In 2013, a study
showed that primacy effect is also prominent in decision making based on experience in a repeated-choice
paradigm, a learning process also known as operant conditioning. The authors showed that importance attached
to the value of the first reward on subsequent behaviour, a phenomenon they denoted as outcome primacy.

Recency effect:
The subjects retain the last few words in the short term store. This accounts for recency effect.The recency effect
is reduced when an interfering task is given. Intervening tasks involve working memory, as the distractor activity,
if exceeding 15 to 30 seconds in duration, can cancel out the recency effect.Additionally, if recall comes
immediately after the test, the recency effect is consistent regardless of the length of the studied list, or
presentation rate.The items in the middle of the list are recalled poorly for at least two reasons. First, they are so
far from the end of the list that they are not in the short term store at the beginning of the retention test. Second,
the subjects did not rehearse them extensively because only a few items can be rehearsed at a time.
There are also factors that can impact the strength and likelihood of the recency effect occurring. Factors that can
influence the occurrence of the recency effect include:
 Task Factors: This refers to the task itself as well as how the information is processed. The length of the
information presented and how it is presented can influence the recency effect.If you were presented a
very short list of words, for instance, you might find it easy to recall all the items, essentially eliminating
the recency effect. A very long list of terms, on the other hand, would be much more likely to produce
recency effects.
 Processing: How you attend to and process the information as it is presented can also affect how it is
recalled.

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 Time: If a long period of time lapses between the presentation and rehearsal of the information and recall,
the recency effect is dramatically reduced or even eliminated altogether.
 Intervening Tasks: Interference can occur if another task or information is presented after the first task.
Research has found that if the distracting task takes longer than 15 to 30 seconds, it will eliminate recency
effects when trying to recall the original information.

Impact on Learning
As you might imagine, the recency effect can play an important role in the learning process. When you are learning
new information, you are most likely to remember the things that you study first (the primacy effect) as well as
those things you study last (the recency effect). This means that when tested on the material, you are more likely
to forget the things that were learned in the middle.

However, there are things that you can do to adapt your study sessions to take advantage of these memory
phenomena. As you structure your study time, realize that the period at the beginning and the period at the end
are your prime learning times.

Try the following steps:

1. Focus on the most important information at the beginning to take advantage of the primacy effect. This
might involve reviewing important terminology or learning new information.
2. Use the middle of your learning time to read through old material you have already learned. This period
is essentially downtime, but it can be useful for reviewing.
3. Spend the last part of your study session reviewing what you have already learned. This can involve
rehearsing those important terms or going over your newly learned material.

Doing this will help cement newly learned information into your memory and minimize the chances or forgetting
the things you learned in the middle of your study session.

Teachers can also take advantage of the recency effect in how they structure classroom time. The first part of the
class should focus on important information. This means skipping over things like basic administrative tasks such
as taking attendance and meet-and-greet icebreakers.

The middle section of class might involve a brief break where these formalities might be better attended to.
Finally, those last 10 to 20 minutes of the class should focus on circling back to the most important concepts.

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2.0 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Chung Won Lee1,*,JinHoKim1, and In KeukHwang (2019) were conducted a study on “A Study on the Serial
Position Effect of Memory according to Illumination of LED Light” to verify the forms of the effect of serial
position effects of memory according to the illuminance of light. Results of this study showed that the difference
between primacy and middle items was statistically significant in relatively dim conditions. These results show
that the primacy effect is strong in the dim condition, and the retrieval is low in the middle item. The recency
effect was also good in the dim condition, but it was low in the relatively bright condition.

DevanshiDesai (2016) was conducted a study on “The significance of mode of presentation on the serial position
effect: an exploratory study”. This experiment aimed to look at the significance of mode of presentation (auditory,
visual printed and visual pictures) on serial position effects. Participants in this experiment were tested with
different treatment conditions. With the auditory group, participants were asked to recall the words by writing
them down after the experimenter read out the list of 21 common-concrete nouns at the rate of 1 second per word.
With the visual printed and visual pictures group, the participants were asked to recall the words by writing them
down after the experimenter presented the stimuli on a PowerPoint presentation. The results indicated that there
was a significant main effect of serial position. However, a significant main effect of mode of presentation and
the interaction between the mode of presentation and serial position wasn’t found.

3.0 METHOD

3.1 PROBLEM

To determine the effect of primacy and recency on recall.

3.2 OBJECTIVE

To know the effect of the serial position on memory.

3.3 HYPOTHESES

Primacy and/or Recency effect on recall will be demonstrated.

3.4 VARIABLES

Independent Variable

Serial position (the order of presentation of a list of 40 words)

Dependent Variable

The number of primacy and recency words recalled.

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3.5PARTICIPANTS

This experiment was performed in adults 20 people with no cognitive impairment. The participants were 7 males
and 13 females, and the mean age was 24.2 years. In addition, prior to the experiment, participants were fully
informed about the experiment.

3.6MATERIAL REQUIRED

 A list of 40 words divided into 3 categories: the first 10 corresponding to the primacy effect, the middle
20 words and the last 10 corresponding to recency effect.
 (Wooden screen-used in the lab method)

3.7PROCEDURE

A list of 40 words was prepared using MS Power point. The participant is seated comfortably in front of the
computer screen. The instructions on the screen are read out clearly and after checking if they understood the
slides were presented.

3.8 PRECAUTIONS
1. Care was taken to ensure the list was not exposed to the subject prior to the experiment.
2. The subject should be able to view only one word at a time.

4.0. RESULTS:

The analysis was performed by dividing the word items into three conditions: primacy, middle, and recency.
Primacy used the first 10items in the word list, Middle used the 11th item to 30th item in the middle of the word
list, and finally Recency used the last 10 items in the word list for analysis. Recalled words of all candidates were
tabulated under these three conditions and done descriptive statistics like mean and standard deviation and
inferential statistics i.e. One way ANOVA.

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Table I: Participants data for number of words and percentage of recall for primacy, recency and also for middle
words.

Recall Primacy Words Middle Words Recency words

recalled (1st 10 recalled recalled(Last
words ( Middle 20 10 words)
words)

Number of 113 184 73

Words recalled by
all participants

Percentage 56% 46% 36%

ofRecall
(%)

Table II: Showing theMean, Standard deviationand ‘f’ valueof recall for primacy, recencyeffects and also for
middle words.

Recall Primacy Words Middle Words Recency words F ratio

recalled (1st 10 recalled recalled(Last
words ( Middle 20 10 words)
words)
Mean 56.5 46 36.5 6.79

S.D 19.54 16.67 14.96

Graph – 1

Bar diagram showing the Mean, Standard deviation of recall for primacy, recencyeffects and also for middle
words.

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SERIAL POSITION EFFECT

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
PRIMACY MIDDLE RECENCY

MEAN SD

4.1 DISCUSSION

Table -I shows that the percentage recall for first 10 words (primacy) is 56%, for last 10 words is 36%. Thus it
shows that primacy effect has been noted. The percentage of recall for middle 20 words is 46% .Thus it clearly
shows that though there is a primacy effect at the individual level, there is a comparatively less recency effect.
And the Table -II shows that the Mean scores of the primacy, middle and recency words are 56.5,46 and
36.5respectively and Standard Deviationscores of the primacy, middle and recency words are 19.54, 16.67 and
14.96 respectively. And result of ANOVA was F = 6.79, and showed that there was a statistically significant
difference in memory retention of primacy, middle, and recency.

CONCLUSION

At the individual level, there was remarkable primacy effects but not the recency effect and there was no
significant difference in memory retention of primacy, middle, and recency .
Implications:

This phenomenon of primacy and recency helps us in acquiring learning strategies and in enhancing our memory.

References:

 Glanzer, Murray, and Anita R. Cunitz. “Two Storage Mechanisms in Free Recall.” Journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior 5.4 (1966): 351-60.
 https://www.e3s-conferences.org/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/

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