Serial Position Effect - GCSE Psychology Definition

The serial position effect is a concept in psychology that explains how we tend to remember the first and last items in a list better than the ones in the middle. This happens because of two phenomena: the primacy effect and the recency effect. The primacy effect means we remember items at the beginning because they have more chance to be stored in our long-term memory. The recency effect means we also remember the last items well because they are still fresh in our short-term memory. When revising for exams, knowing about the serial position effect can help you plan how to learn lists of information more effectively.