Debriefing
The typical results from this serial position task experiment show a primacy effect and a recency effect. The primacy effect is a tendency to accurately recall words presented first on the list, and the recency effect is a tendency to accurately recall words presented last on the list. This pattern of results is consistent with current models of memory. The primacy effect reflects the fact that participants have had more time to rehearse these items—enough time that they are probably in long-term memory and available for recall later. The recency effect demonstrates that as we get new information added to memory, we begin to rehearse it, making it readily available at the time of report. The words in the middle get lost because we aren’t able to rehearse them long enough for them to enter long-term memory.