By Alyssa Bundren
Think of the last test you took. Was there a question on that test that you could not remember even though you knew it was in the study guide? Was it in the middle of the study guide rather than the beginning or end? This is the Serial Position Effect. As described, the Serial Position Effect is the tendency to remember information from the beginning or the end but to forget information. While this may seem straight forward, it can actually be quite complex and effect people more often than you would think. But do not worry, we’re gonna talk about it.
Role of the Dorsal Hippocampus in Serial Position Effect
There was a study done in rats on how the Dorsal Hippocampus plays a role in Serial Position Effect. Yeah, it sucks for the rats, but I didn’t do the study, I’m just here to talk about it.
During this study, the rats are placed into a maze, and they showed good immediate retention for the order of first items and last items. This can be described as the Primacy and Recency Effects. In comparison though, rats with dorsal hippocampus lesions had disruption in the primacy but not the recency component of the serial position effect. In turn, this caused a ten-minute delay before the retention test impaired all components of the effect. This supports the concept that there is correspondence in mnemonic function in the hippocampus in animals and humans. 1
Serial Position Effect in Evaluative Judgements
Evaluations tend to be the premise of decision making. It can be hard to make a decision which is why we tend to evaluate all of our options before just picking one. I am sure you are wondering how serial position effect would influence making judgements so don’t even worry about it I am going to share the wisdom of Christian Unkelbach and Daniel Memmert. In this study, they addressed the advantages and disadvantages of being at the beginning or end of an evaluation. They described it as “Being First Is Bad When You Are Good and Good When You Are Bad.” 2 So, when we are doing our blog showcase, be sure to remember the blogs you read in the middle and not just the ones you read at the beginning and end. I told you those guys were wise.
Consumer Memory for Television Advertising: A Field Study of Duration, Serial Position, and Competition Effects
Advertising can be very complex and there are a lot of different factors that are going to play an essential part. Pieters and Bijmolt analyzed the impact of consumer memory of the duration and serial position of a commercial and of the number of competing commercials in a block using two thousand and six hundred and seventy-seven television commercials. The results suggested that the duration, competition and the time lag until the onset of a commercial in a block have large effect sizes, while primacy and recency have only modest effect sizes. This study shows that recency effects are masked by the time until the onset of a commercial in a block. These factors indicate that placing a commercial first is better than placing it last. 3 I do personally find this very interesting because I would have guessed the complete opposite from what this study discovered.
Primacy and Recency in the Learning of Visual Diagrams
In this study by Leland W. Crafts, he researched whether primacy and recency have significance in the learning of visual diagrams. Irregular arrangements of circles and lines and irregular figures were separated into four parts. This resulted in showing no key exceptions, the groups obtained higher average scores on the parts presented first and last than they did on those occupying the two intermediate positions. 4 I feel as though this really shows how significant the serial position effect is, and it also shows just how much it can influence you.
Effects of Serial Position Upon Memorization
It is very evident that serial position and primacy and recency effects are an important factor in understanding memory and how to learn. Many investigators have shown this, but it could also be said that in these previous investigations, the primacy effect has been undervalued. In this study, there is once again an appreciation for primacy and recency effect but showing that primacy can be more important than recency at times. 5
Conclusion
The serial position plays such a massive and complex role in memory retention and the importance of primacy and recency effect. In numerous studies, results have shown a tendency to remember information given to us at the beginning and end of a section, while unintentionally disregarding any part of the middle portion. Understanding this concept can be hard but there are advantages to learning about it. Understanding serial position effect can help to improve learning, advertising, and information processing. Hopefully, there will continue to be studies on how to keep increasing our understanding of this idea so that we can continue to work around it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
- Kesner, R. P., & Novak, J. M. (1982). Serial Position Curve in Rats: Role of the Dorsal Hippocampus. Science, 218(4568), 173–175. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1688839
- Unkelbach, C., & Memmert, D. (2014). Serial-Position Effects in Evaluative Judgments. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(3), 195–200. (2) http://www.jstor.org/stable/44318771
- Rik G. M. Pieters, & Tammo H. A. Bijmolt. (1997). Consumer Memory for Television Advertising: A Field Study of Duration, Serial Position, and Competition Effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 23(4), 362–372. (3) http://www.jstor.org/stable/2489571
- Crafts, L. W. (1932). Primacy and Recency in the Learning of Visual Diagrams. The American Journal of Psychology, 44(4), 763–767. https://doi.org/10.2307/1414539 (4)
- Robinson, E. S., & Brown, M. A. (1926). Effect of Serial Position upon Memorization. The American Journal of Psychology, 37(4), 538–552. https://doi.org/10.2307/1414914 (5)