Question

Which of the following is true of the serial position curve?

a) if a participant completes a distracting task between learning and recall, the recency effect will be diminished.
b) items near the beginning of a list are better recalled due to the recency effect, as these items have most recently entered long-term storage.
c) items near the end of a list are better recalled due to the recency effect, as these items have most recently entered long-term storage.
d) if a participant completes a distracting task between learning and recall, the primacy effect will be diminished.

Answer 1

The statement that a participant completing a distracting task between learning and recall will diminish the recency effect of the serial position curve is true. The recency effect pertains to better recall of items at the end of a list, and a distracting task interferes with short-term memory retention.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer to the question 'Which of the following is true of the serial position curve?' is a) if a participant completes a distracting task between learning and recall, the recency effect will be diminished. The serial position effect refers to the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst. This effect is composed of two phenomena: the primacy effect, which is the better recall of items at the beginning of a list (due to longer-term storage), and the recency effect, which is the better recall of items at the end of a list (due to being still in short-term memory).

When a distracting task is introduced after learning and before recall, it disrupts short-term memory, causing the recency effect to diminish. However, items remembered due to the primacy effect are less likely to be affected by the distraction, because they have had more time for consolidation into long-term memory.