EXPERIMENT FIVE

SERIAL POSITION EFFECT

ABSTRACT

Serial-position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and
the middle items worst. The term was coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus through studies he performed
on himself, and refers to the finding that recall accuracy varies as a function of an item's position
within a study list. When asked to recall a list of items in any order (free recall), people tend to begin
recall with the end of the list, recalling those items best (the recency effect). Among earlier list items,
the first few items are recalled more frequently than the middle items (the primacy effect). This
experiment is used to study the effect of serial positioning on the speed of learning. The items placed
in the beginning and at the end of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the middle of
the series. The method of the experiment is to use laptop for the PPT of the series. The series will be
of 15 nonsense syllables with three letters arranged in the form of consonant, vowels, consonant.
This experiment is to be conducted in an individual setting and in a single session. The purpose of the
experiment is to study the effect of position of words in series on learning and hence the method of
anticipation will be used. The subject (18-35) would first be given a learning trial (practice trial) and
therefore actual trials begin with each trial being a learning trial as well as retention test. After the
conduction of the experiment, the subject learned the beginning and the end of the series much
faster than the middle.

KEYWORDS: serial-position, vowels, consonant, anticipation, retention

PROBLEM STATEMENT: To study the effect of serial positioning on the speed of learning.

INTRODUCTION

Learning: The process of learning is continuous which starts right from the time of birth of an
individual and continues till the death. We all are engaged in the learning endeavors in order to
develop our adaptive capabilities as per the requirements of the changing environment.

For a learning to occur, two things are important:

 The presence of a stimulus in the environment and

 The innate dispositions like emotional and instinctual dispositions.

Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice
and experience”. This definition has three important elements.

a. Learning is a change in behavior—better or worse.

b. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience, but changes due to growth or
maturation are not learning.

c. This change in behavior must be relatively permanent, and it must last a fairly long time.
Types of Learning:

1. Motor learning:

Most of our activities in our day-to-day life refer to motor activities. The individual has to learn them
in order to maintain his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All
these activities involve muscular coordination.

2. Verbal learning:

This type of learning involves the language we speak the communication devices we use. Signs,
pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use words for
communication.

3. Concept learning:

It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking, reasoning,
intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and
attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning
involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalization. This learning is very useful in recognizing,
identifying things.

4. Discrimination learning:

Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is
called discrimination learning. Example, the sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car,
ambulance, etc.

5. Learning of principles:

Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to
manage their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between two or more
concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

6. Problem solving:

This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as
thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome
difficult problems encountered by the people.

7. Attitude learning:

Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our behavior. We develop different
attitudes from our childhood about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behavior may
be positive or negative depending upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurses towards her
profession, patients, etc.

Memory is today defined in psychology as the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving
information (Squire, 2009). Psychologists have found that memory includes three important
categories: sensory, short-term, and long-term

Retention, Factors involved in retention.

Research shows that six important factors in employee retention are people and culture,
acknowledgement at work, providing meaningful benefits, ongoing training, workplace environment,
and mission and values alignment. persistence of learned behavior or experience during a period
when it is not being performed or practiced, as indicated by the ability to recall, recognize,
reproduce, or relearn it the storage and maintenance of a memory. Retention is the second stage of
memory, after encoding and before retrieval. the inability or refusal of an individual to defecate or
urinate.

Memory (types of memory): Sensory / STM / LTM

Sensory Memory Sensory memory allows you to remember sensory information after the stimulation
has ended. Researchers who classify memory more as stages than types believe that all other
memories begin with the formation of sensory memories. Typically your sensory memory only holds
onto information for brief periods. Remembering the sensation of a person’s touch or a sound you
heard in passing is sensory memory.

There are three types of sensory memory: iconic, which is obtained through sight; echoic, which is
auditory; and haptic, which is through touch.

Short-term Memory

As the name implies, short-term memory allows you to recall specific information about anything for
a brief period. Short-term memory is not as fleeting as sensory memory, but it’s also not as
permanent as long-term memory. Short-term memory is also known as primary or active memory.
For example, if you need to recall a string of numbers, you might keep repeating them to yourself
until you input them. However, if you are asked to recall those numbers about 10 minutes after
inputting them, you’d most likely be unable to.

Working Memory

Working memory is a type of memory that involves the immediate and small amount of information
that a person actively uses as they perform cognitive tasks. While some experts view working
memory as a fourth distinct type of memory, working memory can fall under the classification of
short-term memory and, in many cases, is even used interchangeably

Long-term Memory

We store a vast majority of our memories in our long-term memory. Any memory we can still recall
after 30 seconds could classify as long-term memory. These memories range in significance—from
recalling the name of a friendly face at your favorite coffee shop to important bits of information like
a close friend’s birthday or your home address.

There is no limit to how much our long-term memory can hold and for how long. We can further split
long-term memory into two main categories: explicit and implicit long-term memory.

Explicit Long-term Memory

Explicit long-term memories are memories we consciously and deliberately took time to form and
recall. Explicit memory holds information such as your best friend’s birthday or your phone number.
It often includes major milestones in your life, such as childhood events, graduation dates, or
academic work you learned in school.

In general, explicit memories can be episodic or semantic.

 Episodic memories are formed from particular episodes in your life. Examples of episodic
memory include the first time you rode a bike or your first day at school.

Semantic memories are general facts and bits of information you absorbed over the years.
For instance, when you recall a random fact while filling in a crossword puzzle, you pull it from your
semantic memory.

Implicit Long-term Memory

We are not as deliberate with forming implicit memories as we are with explicit ones. Implicit
memories form unconsciously and might affect the way a person thinks and behaves.

Implicit memory often comes into play when we are learning motor skills like walking or riding a bike.
If you learned how to ride a bike when you were 10 and only ever pick it up again when you are 20,
implicit memory helps you remember how to ride it.

Models of Memory

 The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model.

o The Levels-of Processing Approach.
o Tulving's Model.
o The Parallel Distributed Processing Approach.
o The most accepted theory in psychology as to how memory works is called the
Atkinson & Shiffrin model of memory, which was developed by Atkinson and Shiffrin
in 1968.

This model states that we have three basic types of memory, and those are called the sensory
register, short-term memory and long-term memory.

The multi-store model of memory (also known as the modal model) was proposed by Richard
Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) and is a structural model. They proposed that memory consisted
of three stores: a sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). Explicit
memory (declarative memory): Memory of facts and events which is consciously remembered.
Episodic memory: Memory of every-day events and experiences in the form of “episodes.” Subset of
long-term memory. The model of memory that has dominated this field for the last 50 years is the
three-box memory model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968), which will be a strong focus in our discussion
of memory.

SERIAL-POSITION EFFECT

The serial position effect is a cognitive phenomenon that describes how the position of an item in a
list affects how well it is remembered. There are two main components to the serial position effect:
the primacy effect and the recency effect.

1.Primacy Effect: This refers to the tendency for items at the beginning of a list to be remembered
better than those in the middle. Items at the beginning have a better chance of being transferred
into long-term memory because they receive more attention and rehearsal.

2.Recency Effect: This refers to the tendency for items at the end of a list to be remembered better
than those in the middle as well. Items at the end are still present in short-term memory and are
therefore easily recalled.
 The middle items in a list are often the most poorly recalled, as they neither benefit from being
rehearsed and transferred into long-term memory (as in the primacy effect) nor from being recently
presented and still in short-term memory (as in the recency effect).

The serial position effect has been observed in various memory tasks, such as free recall, where
individuals are asked to remember items in a list without any specific order. This phenomenon has
implications in understanding memory processes and has been studied extensively in the field of
cognitive psychology.

PRIMARY EFFECT

In psychology and sociology, the primacy effect (also known as the primacy bias) is a cognitive bias
that results in a subject recalling primary information presented better than information presented
later on. For example, a subject who reads a sufficiently long list of words is more likely to remember
words toward the beginning than words in the middle.

Many researchers have tried to explain this phenomenon through free recall [null tests]. Coluccia,
Gamboz, and Brandimonte (2011) explain free recall as participants trying to remember information
without any prompting. In some experiments in the late 20th century, it was noted that participants
who knew that they were going to be tested on a list presented to them would rehearse items: as
items were presented, the participants would repeat those items to themselves and as new items
were presented, the participants would continue to rehearse previous items along with the newer
items. It was demonstrated that the primacy effect had a greater influence on recall when there was
more time between presentation of items so that participants would have a greater chance to
rehearse previous (prime) items.

Overt rehearsal was a technique that was meant to test participants' rehearsal patterns. In an
experiment using this technique, participants were asked to recite out loud the items that come to
mind. In this way, the experimenter was able to see that participants would repeat earlier items
more than items in the middle of the list, thus rehearsing them more frequently and having a better
recall of the prime items than the middle items later on.

In another experiment, by Brodie and Murdock, the recency effect was found to be partially
responsible for the primacy effect. In their experiment, they also used the overt-rehearsal technique
and found that in addition to rehearsing earlier items more than later items, participants were
rehearsing earlier items later on in the list. In this way, earlier items were closer to the test period by
way of rehearsal and could be partially explained by the recency effect.

In 2013, a study showed that primacy effect is also prominent in decision making based on
experience in a repeated-choice paradigm, a learning process also known as operant conditioning.
The authors showed that importance attached to the value of the first reward on subsequent
behavior, a phenomenon they denoted as outcome primacy.

In another study, participants received one of two sentences. For example, one may be given "Steve
is smart, diligent, critical, impulsive, and jealous." and the other "Steve is jealous, impulsive, critical,
diligent, and smart." These two sentences contain the same information. The first one suggests
positive trait at the beginning while the second one has negative traits. Researchers found that the
subjects evaluated Steve more positively when given the first sentence, compared with the second
one.
PRIMARY EFFECT AND ITS FACTORS RESPONSIBLE:

The primacy effect refers to the tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better
than information at the middle or end.

There are several causes that relate to how well information is attended to, practiced, and then later
stored.

Rehearsal

The main cause is likely the fact that people tend to rehearse items in order to remember them. This
means that items presented early in the list are more likely to be remembered because they have
been practiced more than items in the middle or at the end of a list. This is supported by evidence
showing that when study participants are instructed not to rehearse or are not given enough time to
rehearse, the primacy effect disappears.

Attention Span

There's also a second reason related to attention span. People are more likely to pay attention at the
beginning and at the end of the presentation of a list of items, and so those are more likely to be
remembered.

Think back to the last conversation you had, the paragraph you read, show you watched, or podcast
you listened to. Chances are you may have zoned out at some points during the middle but probably
were paying attention at both the beginning and the end.

Memory Limitations

Finally, the primacy effect likely persists because of limits in memory. A person might be able to store
those first few items to long-term memory, and those last few items might reside in short-term
memory, but the ones in the middle never get stored.

o Time of presentation: The longer the time between the presentation of items on the
list, the greater the primacy effect. This is due to people having time to rehearse.
o Time of recall: When there is a delay in recall, it affects the primacy effect in a
negative way such that it is reduced.

Researchers have concluded that the primacy effect supports the idea of two separate memory
systems at work: short-term memory (recency effect) and long-term memory (primacy effect).

o The primacy effect involves rehearsing items until they enter long-term memory.
o The recency effect involves the brain's ability to hold up to seven items in short-term
memory.

This highlights that people are drawing on two different types of memory when they demonstrate
the primacy and recency effect.
RECENCY EFFECTS

The recency effect is a cognitive phenomenon in psychology characterized by the tendency to

remember and give greater significance to the most recent items or information encountered in a
series. In other words, when presented with a list of items, people are more likely to recall and
emphasize the items that appeared last.

The recency effect is part of the serial position effect, which suggests that where information is
located in a sequence affects whether it will be remembered. Another phenomenon is known as the
primacy effect, which involves being able to better recall information that comes at the beginning of
a sequence.

The recency effect is primarily attributed to the way that information is processed and stored in
short-term memory. When people encounter a list of items, those encountered most recently are
still actively stored in short-term memory, making them more accessible for retrieval.

There are several factors that can impact how the recency effect happens. Such factors include:

 Time

The recency effect tends to diminish over time. If there is a significant delay between exposure to
information and the recall task, the effect may weaken.

 Distractions

External distractions or interruptions during the presentation of information can interfere with the
recency effect. That is because they disrupt the encoding of recent items into short-term memory.
Because the information doesn’t get encoded properly in the first place, you’re less likely to recall it.

 Cognitive Load

If individuals are presented with a large amount of information, the cognitive load may impact the
recency effect. Overloading short-term memory can affect the retention of recent items.

Imagine a situation where you are trying to cram for an important exam. Trying to retain such a huge
amount of information in such a short period of time overwhelms your short-term memory. This
means that your memories are less likely to be influenced by the recency effect.

 Task Complexity

The nature of the task or information can influence the recency effect. Some tasks may amplify the
effect, while others might not rely strongly on recent information.

 Individual Differences

People vary in their susceptibility to the recency effect. Factors such as cognitive abilities, attention
span, and memory capacity can contribute to individual differences in experiencing this
phenomenon.

 Making choices: When we have to choose something, like a favorite item or person, we often
lean towards what we saw or heard recently.
 Remembering information about a product: Advertisers know that we’re more likely to
remember and like a product if they show its best features at the end of a commercial.
  Learning new things: In class, if a teacher talks about important stuff just before the lesson
ends, students are more likely to remember that information when studying.
 Interviewing for a job: When someone is being interviewed for a job, the interviewer might
remember the last things the person said or did more than what happened earlier.
 Forming impressions of other people: If we’re getting to know someone, the things they do
or say recently can have a bigger impact on how we see them overall.

 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The serial position effect refers to a cognitive phenomenon where individuals tend to remember the
first and last items in a list or sequence better than those in the middle. Let’s delve into the details:

o Primacy Effect: Participants tend to recall early words in a list more accurately. These
words are often transferred to long-term memory because there’s time for acoustic
rehearsal.
o Recency Effect: Words presented toward the end of the list are also remembered
well. This effect exists even when the list is extended to which can hold about 7
items.
o Middle Words: Unfortunately, the words in the middle of the list are often forgotten.
They’ve been in short-term memory too long to stay there (due to displacement) and
not long enough to be encoded into long-term memory.
o Glanzer and Cunitz Study (1966): In this study, participants were presented with lists
of monosyllabic words. The immediate recall group remembered more words at the
beginning and end of the list, demonstrating the primacy and recency effects.

The study of this experiment is the effect of serial positioning on the speed of learning. Hypothesis of
this experiment is The items placed in the beginning of the series will be learned faster than those
placed in the middle. The items placed in the end of the series will be learned faster than those
placed in the middle. The alternative hypothesis of this experiment is the items placed in the middle
of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the beginning. The items placed in the
middle of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the end.

This experiment is to be conducted in an individual setting and in a single session. The purpose of the
experiment is to study the effect of position of words in series on learning, and hence the method of
anticipation will be used. The subject would first be given a learning trial and therefore actual trials
begin with each trial being a learning trial as well as retention test.

By these experiment we were about to see the learning process of the subject. There were 15 words
and they were divided as first 5 as beginning of the series and other 5 as middle of the series and the
last 5 as end of the series. The hypothesis of the experiment was the items placed in the beginning of
the series will be learned faster than those in middle series. This hypothesis was accepted because
the beginning series were learned faster than those in the middle. The second hypothesis states that
the end of the series will be learned faster than those in the middle of the series. The hypothesis was
accepted because the middle series were learned little slower than the end of the series. Therefore,
both the hypothesis were accepted.

The primary goal for conducting these experiment was to see the effect of serial-positioning on the
speed of learning. These also wanted to observe which series will be learned faster. The subject was
explained about the experiment and was made seated comfortably. There was a practice trial before
the actual trials begin. In the practice trial the subject was shown the whole list of nonsense syllables
in one presentation which was followed by the actual trials. Then the subject was shown with a
slideshow of nonsense syllables PPT in laptop. As many as trials, she was allowed to take till all the
words are recalled and said. She took 7 trials to recall all the 15 wor

METHOD

Objective

To study the effect of serial positioning on the speed of learning.

Hypothesis

The items placed in the beginning of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the middle.

The items placed in the end of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the middle.

Alternative Hypothesis

The items placed in the middle of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the beginning.

The items placed in the middle of the series will be learned faster than those placed in the end.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

This experiment is to be conducted in an individual setting and in a single session. The purpose of the
experiment is to study the effect of position of words in series on learning, and hence the method of
anticipation will be used. The subject would first be given a learning trial and therefore actual trials
begin with each trial being a learning trial as well as retention test.

VARIABLES

Independent variable: The serial positioning of the material.

Dependent Variable: Speed of learning.

Controlled variables

o The rule of anticipation method has to be followed strictly.

o Exposure time for each item on each trial list to be kept uniform.
o Environmental factors like noise temperature need to be controlled.
o No feedback should be given to subject regarding his or her performance.

Materials required:

o Laptop for use of ppt to show a uniform presentation of learning material.

o A list of 15 nonsense syllables with three letters arranged in a pattern of consonant
vowel consonant.
o Record sheet.
o Introspective report.
o Pen and pencil.
 Sample:

Gender: female

Age: 25

Occupation: pharmacist

SCORING

Number of correct responses for each item is to be counted and success ratio is to be derived
for each item using the following formulae:

Success ratio = number of correct responses for each item/total number of trials taken to
learn the serial

Range of success ratio will be between 0.1 to 1.0.

PROCEDURE

Preparation: For the purpose of the experiment a PPT presentation was used to present the
nonsense syllables: the subject had to anticipate the nonsense syllable before it appeared on the
screen. There was an actual trial and the practice trial. In the practice trial the subject was allowed to
see the whole list of nonsense syllable in one complete presentation, which was followed by an
actual trial in which the subject had to anticipate the nonsense syllable before it appeared on the
screen.

Rapport formation: The experimenter initially made the subject comfortable by making her sit and
enquiring about the wellbeing of the subject.

The experimenter explained in detail about the experiment and after doing so she asked for the
willingness of the subject. Only after the explicit consent from the subject, the experimenter
conducted the experiment.

Instructions:

The following instructions were given to the subject.

This is a learning experiment. A series of string of letters will be shown to you through a PPT in the
laptop. Look at the items presented to you carefully. The list will be presented completely once.
Thereafter, it will be your task to anticipate the string of letters and spell them out before they
appear on the laptop screen. When you are ready, we can begin.

RESULTS

Qualitative results: As seen in the introspective report it is concluded that the subject found the
experiment mind twisting and challenging. She started learning the words according to her
convenience and very calmly and without getting nervous she performed it.

Quantitative results:
 List of Total no. of Success ratio
nonsense correct
syllables responses
MUT 7 1
GIH 7 1
PAX 6 0.9
ZOK 5 0.7
TEP 6 0.9
VIW 3 0.4
RUJ 4 0.6
HAQ 4 0.6
DEY 5 0.7
XOT 3 0.4
FIM 6 0.9
BUH 5 0.7
CAG 6 0.9
KEL 6 0.9
SIV 7 1

List of Total no. of Success ratio

nonsense correct
syllables responses
MUT 7 1
GIH 7 1
PAX 6 0.9
ZOK 5 0.7
TEP 6 0.9
VIW 3 0.4
RUJ 4 0.6
HAQ 4 0.6
DEY 5 0.7
XOT 3 0.4
FIM 6 0.9
BUH 5 0.7
CAG 6 0.9
KEL 6 0.9
SIV 7 1

DISCUSSION

The primary goal for conducting these experiment was to see the effect of serial-positioning on the
speed of learning. These also wanted to observe which series will be learned faster. The subject was
explained about the experiment and was made seated comfortably. There was a practice trial before
the actual trials begin. In the practice trial the subject was shown the whole list of nonsense syllables
in one presentation which was followed by the actual trials. Then the subject was shown with a
slideshow of nonsense syllables PPT in laptop. As many as trials, she was allowed to take till all the
words are recalled and said. She took 7 trials to recall all the 15 words.

By these experiment we were about to see the learning process of the subject. There were 15 words
and they were divided as first 5 as beginning of the series and other 5 as middle of the series and the
last 5 as end of the series. The hypothesis of the experiment was the items placed in the beginning of
the series will be learned faster than those in middle series. This hypothesis was accepted because
the beginning series were learned faster than those in the middle. The second hypothesis states that
the end of the series will be learned faster than those in the middle of the series. The hypothesis was
accepted because the middle series were learned little slower than the end of the series. Therefore,
both the hypothesis were accepted.

LIMITATION

●Environmental conditions like noise, light, temperature could not be controlled.

● The experiment was conducted on the male subject and thus the results could not be generalized
to the female population.

● The experiment was done on a single subject; thus, the results could not be generalized on all.

● Since the experiment was conducted in the experimenter's house and not in a laboratory setting,
there may be some factors which could have affected the subject’s performance.

● The subject took more time to learn the middle of the series than those in the beginning and end
of the series.

● The experiment was conducted on a student and thus the results could not be applied to all the
age groups and across all populations.

CONCLUSION:

By this experiment we can conclude that it takes little more trials to recall all the 15 words because
the words are arranged in the form of consonant, vowel, consonant and they are nonsense syllables,
requires much time to get learned. Thus, hypothesis was accepted and proved.

REFERNCES:

Glanzer, M., & Cunitz, A. R. (1966). Two storage mechanisms in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning
and Verbal behavior, 5(4), 351-360.

Murdock, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology,
64(5), 482–488.

Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1968). Chapter: Human memory: A proposed system and its control
processes. In Spence, K. W., & Spence, J. T. The psychology of learning and motivation (Volume 2).
New York: Academic Press. pp. 89–195.