Moishe can remember only the first two items and the last two items on the grocery list that his wife just read to him over the phone. The other five items in between are gone. This is an example of the
A) encoding specificity effect.
B) serial position effect.
C) TOT effect.
D) reintegrative effect.
E) priming effect.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The serial position effect refers to the tendency to remember the first and last items in a list more easily than the items in the middle. This is likely due to the primacy effect (remembering the first items) and the recency effect (remembering the last items), while the items in the middle may not have had enough time for consolidation or may have interfered with each other, leading to poorer recall. The other answer choices are not applicable to this situation.

Moishe Can Remember Only the First Two Items and the Last