Psychology Commons^™

Primacy And Recency Effects On Position Error In Short-Term Memory Recall, Weerachet Sinlapanuntakul, Kelly Harris, Brittany S. Wesley

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Position error is the most common error in serial recall of short-term memory, especially when environment, language, or similarity factors are presented. Previous studies demonstrate some support for the serial recall resulting in less error-prone for the first and last positions than the middle positions. This study investigates the accuracy of recalling letters and their positions when given a random sequence with minimal to no external factors. The significant predictors influencing position error were the primacy and recency effects. Participants completed a 20-trial experiment on the CogLab Experimental Control Software, which presented a series of letters one at a time …