Question

Words at the end of a list are typically remembered better than words presented in the middle. This is known as the ___________ effect and it presumably happens because the last few words on the list remain in __________ memory.

Answer 1

The enhanced recall of words at the end of a list is the 'serial position effect' due to them being in short-term memory. Memory can degrade by trace decay and interference in short-term, but if retained and processed, it transitions to long-term memory.

Step-by-step explanation:

Words at the end of a list are typically remembered better than words presented in the middle. This is known as the serial position effect and it presumably happens because the last few words on the list remain in short-term memory. This effect is attributed to the fact that we tend to start forgetting items due to memory trace decay and proactive interference, which affect short-term memory. Memory trace decay refers to the gradual fading of the memory trace over time, as shown in the Peterson and Peterson (1959) study with trigrams which indicated significant forgetting after 18 seconds. Proactive interference occurs when older memory affects the recall of newer information. Once information is retained longer and meaningfully processed, such as through semantic encoding which involves a deeper level of processing, it goes into long-term memory where it can be more readily recalled.