The Serial Position Effect in Short-term Memory

Running head: THE SERIAL POSITION EFFECT 1
The Serial Position Effect in Short-term Memory
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Abstract

THE SERIAL POSITION EFFECT 2
The experiment sought to examine the tendency of human minds to recall words in a list with a
higher probability for those at the beginning and the end compared to those in the middle. Eleven
subjects, in essence, six male and five female were randomly selected for participation. Words
were read by the tutor where four lists each entailing twelve words were read and the results
from the participants compiled using MLS for analysis. The results showed that the responses for
the words at the beginning and the end of the lists had the most significant frequency compared
to those in the middle of the list. Therefore, the subjects memorised the words at the beginning
and the end of lists with higher chances compared to those in the middle of the lists.
The Serial Position Effect in Short-term Memory

THE SERIAL POSITION EFFECT 3
Introduction
The serial position effect in psychology seeks to explain the tendency of the human brain
to recall the first and last items compared to the items at the middles of a given list (Yang et al.,
2019). The author explained the serial effect involves two primary concepts, in essence, the
primacy and the recency effects. The primacy and the recency concepts depict how the items at
the beginning of a sequence and the end are likely to be recalled with higher accuracy than those
at the middle of the list (Allen, Hitch, & Baddeley, 2018). Therefore, the report presented a list
of items that was memorised to examine the effects of serial position.
Purpose of study
The study aims to evaluate the serial position effect without manipulation of the subjects
towards memorising. This would be tested through the number of words recalled in a list of
given words read to the subjects.
Hypothesis
Null Hypothesis, H0: Items at the beginning and the end of a list are likely to be recalled with
higher accuracy as opposed to those at the middle.
Alternative Hypothesis, H1: Items at the beginning and the end of a list are not likely to be
recalled with higher accuracy as opposed to those at the middle.
Justification of hypothesis
The selected hypothesis would incline the experiment towards the topic of study, serial
position effect thus making the researcher draw significant judgments from the literature review/
background information, findings/ results, and from the analysis and discussion at the end of the
experiment.
Literature review

THE SERIAL POSITION EFFECT 4
Many scholars have shown interest in advancing their research towards the serial position
effect through various theories that sought to explain. For instance, the Jensen’s theory attempted
to demonstrate that the serial position effect can be evaluated through the anchor point which
claims that the items in a list which are memorised first are those that are first-learned by the
participant as they serve as an anchor point for learning the other items (Kao et al., 2018). The
authors argued that the items that are first attended to are those that are recalled most by the
subject. However, some scholars have challenged the theory claiming that it goes against the
mechanics of learning in class since it suggests a sequence of recalling items from the top to the
bottom of the list. Furthermore, the scholars challenged the theory since they ascertain that the
items at the middle of a list cannot be memorised with the same degree of accuracy with those at
the bottom of the list.
On the other hand, the Atkinson and the Shiffrin Model of serial position effect by
Malmberg, Raaijmakers, and Shiffrin (2019) ascertained that the when the subject recognises a
word in a list, it is then passed from the sensory memory into the short-term memory. The
authors further alluded that if the word was held in short-term memory, it could be taken to the
long-term memory only when memorised by the subject. The scholars claimed the assumption
that the short-term memory exhibit a smaller capacity; thus, the first items in a list were held in
the short-term memory for a significant time compared to the other items. However, by
exceeding the capacity of short-term memory, new words are entered by displacing the previous
words. The theory explained that the former words in a list remained in short term memory to be
transferred to the long-term capacity through rehearsal. Concisely, the primacy effect arose from
the process of retrieving the information from the long-term memory whereas the recency effect
was due to the method of recovering the words from the short-term memory (Shallice &