Let’s think about a presentation we went to on psychology, for example. When you leave the presentation, what do you think you will remember best, the information at the beginning, the information in the middle or the information at the end?

Curiously enough, and if the presentation is not too long, you will remember the initial information and the final information better. In this article we will talk about the latter case, the so-called recency effect .

Recency effect: what is it?

As we saw in the example, when we are exposed to a certain amount of information, our capacity of attention and memory is higher at the beginning; it declines in the middle and grows again at the end .

The recency effect occurs when the information provided at the end is the one we remember best. This refers to short-term memory. However, when the information that is best remembered is the one that was at the beginning, we are then talking about the primacy effect.

Word lists

But the effect of recency appears in other paradigms or situations, and, in fact, when the study of short-term memory began, experiments were used based on the technique of serial learning (for example, remembering lists of words). This test showed that the probability of remembering an item varied according to its position on the list .

The recency effect refers to the fact that the last items on the list are better remembered compared to the items in the initial positions (i.e. the first items heard or read on the test; the so-called primacy effect).

Using lists and from the technique of free memory (where the subject is asked which words he remembers), the effect of recency was discovered.

Daily life

However, as we have seen at the beginning of the article, the effect of recency can be extrapolated to other situations of everyday life, which imply that we “remember” certain information . In other words, it is a broader concept than simply “remembering the last items on a list” (although it also includes the latter).

Thus, following this principle, things learned or heard more recently are remembered more and better. On the other hand, the more time passes between the information heard (or seen, read, etc.), and the evocation of that information (asking the subject to evoke it), the more difficult it will be to occur. In other words, the less likely it will be that the subject will remember the information.

For example, if we ask a student about a topic the same afternoon he or she has finished studying it, he or she is much more likely to remember the topic and be able to explain it, than if we ask him or her the next morning or afternoon.

Another example is that it is easier to remember a phone number dialed a few minutes ago, than a number we dialed the day before. These are examples that illustrate the effect of recency.

Academic field

In this way, we see how the last information we acquire is generally more memorable for us, we remember it better. On the other hand, it is known that reviewing information frequently, as well as using summaries, helps to fix the material or information in the mind, and therefore to evoke the information more easily when we are asked for it (to remember it better).

We can apply the recency effect in the academic and learning environment ; for example, determining the temporal sequence of classes, lessons or subjects to be taught, according to the importance within the school year.

Research

The phenomenon of the recency effect, together with the primacy effect also commented on, has been interpreted following the multi-warehouse model of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). According to this model, these effects reflect the operations of two independent memory systems: short-term memory (in the case of the recency effect) and long-term memory (primacy effect).

This happens because, if we think of a list of “X” words that are read to us (for example 10) and that we must remember, when we ask ourselves about them, it happens that

1. Primacy effect

We remember the first words in the list better (this is due to long-term memory, because several seconds, even minutes, have passed since we heard the words).

2. Recency effect

We also remember the last words of the list better (due to short-term memory, since it includes a few seconds from when the words were heard until we were asked about them).

Pathologies

In some pathological populations it has been found that the recency effect (in serial learning tasks) is more preponderant than the primacy effect. These populations have been of people with amnesias of various aetiologies and in people with dementia type Alzheimer.

Bibliographic references:

  • Garzon, A. and Seoane J. (1982). Memory from information processing.
  • De Vega, M. (1990). Introduction to Cognitive Psychology. Psychology Alliance. Madrid.
  • Martin, M.E. et al. (2013). Relevance of the serial position effect in the differential diagnosis between mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s type dementia and normal aging. ScienceDirect, Neurology, 28(4), 219-225.