An instructor gives her students a list of terms to memorize for their biology exam. After allowing the students three minutes to look over the list, she asks one student to recite the terms back to her, from memory. What information will this student likely be able to recall from the list?
A) The student won't recall any of the terms because he has not used rehearsal to encode them.
B) Since there was no delay in asking for the terms, the student will remember those at the end of the list, showing a recency effect.
C) Since there was a delay in asking for the terms, the student will remember those at the beginning of the list, showing a primacy effect.
D) The student will recall only those items to which he has attached some meaning, regardless of where they fall on the list.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The primacy effect suggests that items at the beginning of a list are often easier to remember because they have had more time to be rehearsed and encoded into long-term memory. In this scenario, the student has only had three minutes to look at the list, so the primacy effect is likely to be stronger than the recency effect (which would apply if there had been a delay before the student was asked to recall the terms). Choice A is incorrect because rehearsal is not mentioned in the scenario. Choice B is incorrect because the recency effect is not as strong in immediate recall situations. Choice D may be partially true, but the primacy effect is likely to outweigh any personal attachment the student has to specific terms on the list.

An Instructor Gives Her Students a List of Terms to Memorize