Ch 7.5- Serial Position Effect

serial position effect

tendency to recall earlier and later items from a list

Primacy effect

Advantage for remembering the first few words of a list, long term memory

Recency Effect

advantage for last few words of a list, short term memory

Proactive vs Retroactive interference

p: old info interferes with new info

r: new info interferes with old info

distinguishing stm & ltm

—variations to methodology can selectively disrupt primacy or recency effect

(Delayed recall: instead of writing down words right away, wait 1 min or 5 min, wipes out recency effect

Rapid Presentation: reading list very quickly leaves no time for rehearsal, wipes out primary effect)

— Hippocamus (LTM) vs sensory and association areas (STM)

brain damage can selectively impair one memory system