Items at the start and end of a list are recalled better than those in the middle.
Ebbinghaus's finding, and it absorbs the older primacy and recency laws. Primacy reflects rehearsal into long-term memory and recency reflects the buffer, which is why a delay kills recency and not primacy.
In practice
- An interview panel seeing nine candidates recalls the first and the last in detail and consults its notes for the rest.
- A presentation's opening and closing are remembered; the four middle points are the ones the presenter cared most about.
- Standing
- Absorbs the older primacy and recency laws.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- A century and a half of measuring the mind