Question

With regard to the serial position effect, the primacy effect refers to the ___________ recall of words presented at/in the ___________ of the list.

Answer 1

The primacy effect in psychology refers to a better recall of items at the beginning of a list due to more effective encoding into long-term memory and less competition from previously presented items.

Step-by-step explanation:

The primacy effect refers to the enhanced recall of words presented at the beginning of the list. This phenomenon is a component of the serial position effect, an aspect of memory that is often studied in psychology. It describes the tendency of an individual to remember the first few items in a series more effectively than those in the middle. Previous research, including the study by Miller & Campbell (1959), has suggested that the primacy effect occurs because the items at the beginning of a list are more effectively encoded into long-term memory, due to a greater opportunity for rehearsal and less competition from previously presented items.