Refers to the tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list

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Shall we demonstrate this effect in practice? Take a good look at the image of the list provided above. And we’ll get to it in a while…

It’s History Time

Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, performed studies on himself finds that recall accuracy typically varies as a function of an item’s position. People tend to recall items found at the end of the list and the beginning frequently than the middle of the list.

Serial-position Effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and middle items worst.

The idea was demonstrated with a list of items to be remembered and recalled after some time with interference tasks. This overall effect is a result of two separate effects:

Memory recall by position in the list — Wikipedia

Memory recall by position in the list — Wikipedia

Primacy effect:

This refers to the tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than information at the end or middle. The main cause of this is that people tend to rehearse a lot at the beginning to remember them. A simple example would be exploring new topics either during their studies or any hobbies. People would spend as much time to strengthen their base ideas before moving towards any intermediate or expert topics. soon, they might lose interest but would remember their initial efforts. This also relates to a famous saying, “The first impression is the last impression”.

Recency effect:

This refers to the tendency to recall information presented at the end of a list better than information at the middle or beginning. The recency effect depends on short-term memory, also known as active or primary memory, which can hold a relatively small amount of information in the mind for a brief period. You might be able to recall what you had for dinner last night, but it might take a while or completely forget what you had a couple of days or a week ago.

While the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” may be true, the illustrations on the front and the summary on the back cover provides an impression leading to read that book.

Read more on the psychological theory here:

Serial-position effect

Serial-position effect is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle…

en.wikipedia.org

How the Primacy Effect Can Help You in Your Life

Have you ever been asked to memorize a list of items? Or just been given a list of items that you tried to remember? If…

www.verywellmind.com

How Does the Recency Effect Influence Memory?

The recency effect is the tendency to remember the most recently presented information best. For example, if you are…

www.verywellmind.com

UX Perspective

Keep in mind that users have a limited span of active memory when they visit your website or application. Would it help or stress them to be provided with an extensive list of features you might provide? A designer’s job is to make a user’s experience as stressless as possible when they come across your platform. For example, think of a product’s landing page, where users are presented with in-depth, system-level information at the top and bottom of the page while the call-to-action for purchase of that product was presented in the middle of that page. There’s a good chance, your user is already on the competitor’s product on the next tab of their browser by now.

Some of the best tips identified with existing platforms:

Apple landing page featuring iPhone 11 Pro

Apple landing page featuring iPhone 11 Pro
  • Important information relevant to the user’s decision should be kept at the beginning and bottom of your landing page. The primacy effect will make an immediate impact on the user providing your product’s highlighted features at the beginning of the page. The recency effect can help them make an informed decision to make that purchase at the end of your page and you can mention all the detailed information in the middle of your page. For example, check out the landing page for iPhone 11 pro. The first scroll will focus mainly on the new camera modules and features as nowadays users primarily make their purchase decisions based on the smartphone’s camera performances as the rest of the features will remain the same across all devices. Also, at the end of that page, you will find the links to the upgrade and trade-in options that can help users save some money over their upgrades. Most of the time, these factors will be the major factors that will eventually lead to a sale for them.

Microsoft Word display required tools in use

Microsoft Word display required tools in use
  • Show relevant information for the tasks that the user is currently focussed on to eliminate the excessive cognitive load on users. The information that might not be relevant to the user’s task can be hidden under a list on the taskbar or minimized for access if required. Implementation of this technique can be observed at many applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, Microsoft word, etc. Let’s consider Microsoft word for the example here. When the user opens up a new document, the user is provided with an active “Home” tab. This tab has essential features at hand for the user, required for a simple text document such as font styles, paragraph styling, and spacing requirements. Utilizing the recency effect, the user will not struggle to find the absolute necessary tools for formatting the document compared to all the tools provided at once, which could confuse the users and provide less space for the user to work with or everything hidden from the user, which would take extra cognition load to figure out where the tools reside. Also, you can notice page numbers and page zoom size at the footer of the interface for immediate information.

Instant messages serial position — Noon

Instant messages serial position — Noon
  • Provide visual or auditory cues for the things encountered before by the user. The best example of this would be instant messaging applications. Notifications for new messages received by any application are displayed on the top of previously received or read messages on the list. Also, new messages are differentiated by the highlights to indicate they are not yet read. In case, user missed the older notifications and are buried at the bottom of the list, certain cues like the count badge can hint the user to check for unread messages within the list. This takes advantage of the recency effect. Users are most likely to forget the messages received earlier in the list rather than the ones in their visual vicinity, on the top of the list.

Amazon website display all selected filters

Amazon website display all selected filters
  • Limit the user’s recall memory for the items about related information of the task performed. Considering another important psychological effect, Miller’s law, human attention is limited and can maintain only about five (plus or minus two) items of information at any time. For example, searching for a laptop on the Amazon website, you get overwhelmed by the displayed products. It’s natural for any user to filter their choice depending on the specifications, brand name, price, etc. Users typically tend to forget their current selected filters after browsing through multiple items provided in the catalog. Therefore, filters listed on the top of their catalog gives them a quick reference to identify what they should expect or change the filters if necessary.

Read more about the serial position effect and tips for incorporating in your design here:

Serial Position Effect: How to Create Better User Interfaces

Learn about the limits of your user's short-term memory by understanding how the serial position effect works and how…

www.interaction-design.org

UX Laws #5: Serial position effects

Offering visual examples of how certain UX Laws can help you to create a better user experience.

uxdesign.cc

Serial Positioning Effect design pattern

We have a tendency to recall the first and the last items in a series best Use when you are considering how to order…

ui-patterns.com

Key takeaways and tl;dr

Do you remember the sequence provided above? Write the sequence of the icons without the color below in the comment section without looking at the sequence again to check how your memory served you.

Primacy effect can help potential users with the initial impression of your product’s features in a brief while the recency effect can help those users convert as your customers. Design your product in a way that puts a minimum load on your user’s cognition by providing immediate access to relevant tools for the task performed. Whether you want to leave a positive lasting impression using the primacy effect or awe them with all your product has to offer with the recency effect, use the Serial Position effect in your product’s design and enjoy the rest of your day. 🙂

Which term refers to the tendency to recall the items at the beginning?

In simplest terms, 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. This is a cognitive bias that is believed to relate to the tendency to rehearse and relate memory storage systems.

What is it called remembering the beginning of the list?

The improved recall of words at the beginning of the list is called the primacy effect; that at the end of the list, the recency effect.

What is the tendency to remember things at the end of a list?

The recency effect is the tendency to remember the most recently presented information best. For example, if you are trying to memorize a list of items, the recency effect means you are more likely to recall the items from the list that you studied last.

What term describes our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list?

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.