Recency effect: what it is and how it affects memory.

A psychological phenomenon that expresses itself in the way we recall memories.

Let's think about a presentation we attend on psychology, for example. When you leave the presentation, which do you think you will remember better, the information from the beginning, the middle or the end?

Curiously enough, and if the presentation is not very long, you will remember better the initial information and the final information. 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 for attention and recall 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 at the beginning, we are talking about the primacy effect.

Word lists

But the recency effect appears in other paradigms or situations, and, in fact, when short-term memory began to be studied, experiments based on the serial learning technique (e.g. remembering lists of words) were used. Through this test, it was found that the probability of remembering an item varied as a function of its position in the list..

The recency effect refers to better recall of the last items in the list compared to the items in the initial positions (i.e., the first items heard or read in the test; the so-called primacy effect).

Using lists and the free recall technique (where the subject is asked which words he/she remembers), the recency effect was discovered.

Everyday life

However, and as we have seen at the beginning of the article, the recency effect can be extrapolated to other situations of everyday life, which involve us "remembering" certain information.. That is, 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. Conversely, the more time elapses between the information heard (or seen, read, etc.), and the evocation of that information (asking the subject to recall it), the more difficult it will be for it to occur. That is to say, the less likely it will be to recall such information.

For example, if we ask a student about a subject the same afternoon that he has finished studying it, he will be much more likely to remember the subject and know how to explain it, than if we ask him the following morning or the following afternoon.

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

Academic field

Thus, we see how the last information we acquire is generally more memorable to us, we remember it better. 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 recall 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 environmentFor example, determining the temporal sequence of classes, lessons or subjects to be taught, according to their importance within the school year.

Research

The phenomenon of the recency effect, together with the primacy effect also discussed, has been interpreted following the multi-storage model of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). (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 occurs because, if we think of a list of "X" words that are read to us (for example 10) and that we must remember, when asked about it, it happens that:

1. Primacy effect

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

2. Recency effect

We also remember the last words on the list better (due to short-term memory, which includes a few seconds from the time the words were heard until we were asked for them). (due to short-term memory, since this includes a few seconds from the time 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 included people with amnesias of various etiologies and in people with dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Bibliographical references:

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