Mort is going to the supermarket to pick up seven items - a toilet brush,shampoo,apples,toothpicks,baby diapers,a birthday card,and pasta.He has them written down in this order on his shopping list,but he gets to the store and finds that he's left the list at home.He finds the first few things and the last few things on his list,but for all of his effort he cannot remember that he needed toothpicks.This tendency to forget things that came in the middle of a list of items is called the __________ effect.
A) recency
B) primacy
C) serial position
D) pseudoforgetting

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The serial position effect is the tendency for people to remember items at the beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of a list better than items in the middle. In this scenario, Mort is experiencing the serial position effect as he can remember the first few items and last few items on his list but forgets the items in the middle.

Mort Is Going to the Supermarket to Pick Up Seven