While Aaron was waiting for a prescription to be filled, he called Kate to see if she wanted him to pick up anything while he was at the grocery store. To his surprise, Kate rattled off 10 different items she wanted him to buy. Aaron forgot two items in the middle of the list. Aaron's pattern of forgetting illustrates:
A) absentmindedness.
B) the tip-of-the-tongue experience.
C) retrograde amnesia.
D) the serial position effect.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Aaron's forgetting of the two items in the middle of the list is an example of the serial position effect, which is the tendency for people to have better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list (primacy and recency effects) and poorer recall for items in the middle. This is a common experience in everyday life and can be explained by the way information is processed and stored in memory.

While Aaron Was Waiting for a Prescription to Be Filled