Final answer:
Jack's experience is described by the serial position effect, which suggests that people recall the first and last items on a list better than the middle ones, due to the primacy and recency effects involved in memory recall.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jack's experience of remembering the first few terms and the last few terms on his vocabulary quiz can be best explained by the serial position effect. This psychological phenomenon suggests that when people are presented with a list of items to remember, they tend to recall the first items (primacy effect) and the last items (recency effect) better than the middle items. Decay, which refers to the fading of memories over time, is related to long-term memory, but does not specifically explain the pattern of recall Jack is experiencing. Amnesia, which is memory loss, also does not adequately account for the selective recall of the beginning and end items.
The serial position effect is a pattern of memory distortion that is commonly encountered in everyday life and well-documented in cognitive psychology. It is observed during tasks that require recall from a list, such as Jack's vocabulary quiz. This effect is highly relevant in educational settings where students often engage in rote memorization. Understanding this effect can help students adopt more effective study methods that account for the tendency of the memory to privilege information from the beginning and end of study sessions.