Influence of Delayed Free Recall on the Recency Effect

Examining the Serial Position Model: Influence of Delayed Free Recall on the Recency Effect.
Student Name:
Student Number:
Module:
Abstract
In the past decades, there has been debate on whether the serial position has an effect on immediate and recency effects. Several studies conducted have indicated mixed results on the same topic. However, the current study conducted a comprehensive study to investigate the effect of serial position on recency effects. In order to achieve the objective of the study, a sample of 110 participants was picked using a convenience sampling approach. The study employed an experiment involving six sets of 12 words per set, and the participants were asked to recall the words immediately or after they were exposed to a distraction activity. The results from ANOVA and paired t-tests suggested a statistically significant interaction between the free recall and serial position. Moreover, there was a negative effect between recency effects and delayed free recall.
Section I: Introduction
According to Feigenbaum et al. (1962), the serial position effect is defined as the psychological capability of a person to remember the first and the last items in a given list better than the items in the middle. The theory of the serial position effect was introduced in 1913 by Herman Ebbinghaus. It suggests that on free recall tasks, human beings tend to remember the most current items in a list, referred to as the recency effect, and the items in the beginning, referred to as the primary effect, compared to the items in the middle of the list. However, based on this phenomenon, on free call tasks, the performance pattern follows a U-Shaped serial position curve (Yoo et al., 2016).
Literature Review
Glanzer, M., & Cunitz, A. R. (1966) conducted a study on the serial position effect to test that the bimodal curve in free call is generated by output from the long and short-term mechanisms. However, the study findings suggested that repetition does not significantly affect the presentation rate. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the recency effect has a significantly greater recall than the primacy effect. Also, the results from the study indicated that the delay between the end of the list and recall had a significant association with short-term memory. On the other hand, the primary effect was highly associated with long-term memory. According to the theory developed by Atkinson in 1967, the processing and storage of information by a person in either long-term or short-term memory depends on factors such as duration and encoding capacity. Based on the above theory, recency effects will occur among human beings because the items are processed and stored in short-term storage and are only recalled when the memory is prompted to retrieve the information.
Craik, F. I. (1970) conducted a study on "the fate of primary memory items in free recall." In order to achieve the study objective, the study experimented with a list of 10 words that the participants were required to memorize for immediate free recall. However, based on the study findings, it was discovered that words in terminal serial places were most easily recalled during one recall session but least easily during the second recall. Moreover, the results indicated that Primary Memory items are less easily learned than Secondary Memory items.
Based on the above-discussed literature, we can hypothesize that the recency effects encapsulate the secondary memory. However, some studies present mixed results. According to Bjork et al. (1972), the results suggested that the recency effects do not necessarily require short-term memory output but are a long-term effect. Regarding the aforementioned, the current study sought to investigate whether the delayed recall test has an effect on recency effects. The study hypothesis will investigate whether the delayed recall test statistically affects recency effects.
Section II: Methods
Research Design
The study design is the defined set of approaches applied in research for data collection and analysis based on the study questions. However, the current study employed a within-subjects study design or the repeated measures design because similar participants were exposed to different experiments. A sample of 110 participants was picked for the study, where all the participants were given a list of words to memorize and recall as instructed by the researcher. The study dependent variable is the memory score that is measured as a percentage of recall. On the other hand, the independent variables (conditions) are delayed free calls and immediate free calls.
Study Participants
The study employed a non-probability sampling method, convenient sampling, where a total of 110 participants were picked voluntarily. Moreove...