What is the recency effect in psychology

In the second half of the 19th century, the German psychologist H. Ebbinghaus began a series of studies on the measurement of human memory. He proposed to study pure memory, that is, as a function in itself, without cultural or subjective interference. The scholar designed his experiments in such a way that the memory could in no way be based on the meaning of the words used, and then used nonsense syllables that the subjects had to memorize in the shortest possible time.

Based on his experiments, Ebbinghaus developed three theories, and according to his theory of the serial position effect, memorizing the words one after another there is a greater possibility of remembering especially the words that are at the beginning, but also those that are at the end of the list, the so-called effect recency. In this Psychology-Online article, we will delve into what is the recency effect in psychology.

Index

1. What is the recency effect in psychology?
2. Why the recency effect occurs
3. How the recency effect affects memory
4. Differences between the primacy effect and the recency effect

The effect recency, as the name suggests, is the tendency to better remember the most recently presented information. For example, if you are trying to memorize a list of items, the recency effect indicates that you are more likely to remember the items on the list that you studied last. Reception is a component of the serial position effect, the phenomenon cited above for which the position of items in a list influences how well these items will be remembered.

The recency bias depends on the short term memory, also known as active or primary memory, whose ability is to hold a relatively small amount of information in mind for a short period of time. This information is stored and kept active for your use, but is not manipulated; in fact, storing a phone number that someone just recited to you long enough to compose it is a good example of short-term memory.

Short-term memory is limited in terms of capacity and duration: most information has a duration between 20 and 30 seconds, without active maintenance; About four pieces of information can be stored in short-term memory for a short period.

Recency bias can occur, therefore, because we can easily remember items that are still temporarily stored in short-term memory. If the information is not manipulated, it will be lost quickly and disappear from memory.

In fact, the brain remembers two things in particular:

1. The first thing seen or said (primacy effect), so it is recommended to start a presentation or speech, thus assuming an important "advantage" for the people who listen, since it will be more easily remembered.
2. The last thing seen or said, that is, the recency effect, according to which it is recommended to conclude the presentation or speech with a convincing recap of the main advantages offered and the factors of differentiation.

Since short-term memory has a limited capacity, each subsequent word in the list "excludes" the previous one; for this reason the last words are more likely to be remembered than the central ones. For example, on the part of political parties, special attention is paid to the position in which the intervention of its leader, since the disposition in the central part of the interviews does not allow a complete and certain memorization. As just said, the most impressive information is the one at the beginning or end of a sequence.

For some sales professionals, taking part in situations where they have multiple competing presentations is an event. Common: Suppliers who are part of the shortlist of final candidates will be invited to present one after another at the the same day. The client's brain attends this series of presentations and then has to decide on a few selections, a procedure that places a strong demand on brain energy. The same principle applies to the best part of the day to celebrate your presentation. The winning ideal is, therefore, to be the first or the last; if it is in the middle position, it will probably be less easy to remember and will have less impact. It should also be borne in mind that at the end of the day the client's brain begins to get tired and that this affects its ability to receive and process messages.

Recency bias is almost always described in conjunction with what is called the "primacy effect", two interpretive models of how our memory stores the information we receive. Some information, the ones we receive first are stored in the so-called long-term memory, which means that they are more stable (the primacy effect, precisely), while those that are communicated to us at the end of a conversation are stored in short-term memory due to the recency effect. In these articles, you will find more information about the long term memory and the short term memory.

Recent studies on these phenomena have shown that, from the point of view of memory retention, the most recent information is more relevant and, in particular, the recency effect on memory is predominant compared to the primacy effect, especially in the situations in which the time between receipt of the information and any decision, including a behavioral one, to be taken is reduced.

In the following article, you will find other cognitive biases.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is the recency effect in psychology, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.

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