Serial Position Experiments

A helpful way to understand a topic completely is to participate in its actual process. Two separate serial position experiments exist on the Internet, one that uses free recall, and the other that incorporates assisted recall. The first of the two experiments uses only one trial. It presents a list of 10 letters for approximately 15 seconds, and then removes the list and then you are prompted to type in the letters that you can remember into the appropriate text box. This is free recall (unaided retrieval of items in short-term memory). I participated in this experiment, and I recalled more items from the beginning and end of the list rather than the middle. Free Recall Experiment

Instead of the use of free recall, the second experiment uses assisted recall. The experiment consists of 15 trials, where each trial flashes a sequence of letters and then provides a list of the letters of the alphabet for you to choose the letters from that you can recall. Since the letters are provided as cues in memory, this is what classifies the experiment as a use of assisted recall. The results show the true effects of serial position, as my rate of recall was high in the beginning, took a deadly drop in the middle, and gradually rose towards the end. (Editor's note: The experiment to which Amy refers is now password protected and is no longer publicly available on the Internet - Dr. Drea)

However, for right now, let's try a little experiment of our own:

Get a pen/pencil and piece of scratch paper.
Examine the following list of grocery items for 30 seconds:

Milk, eggs, butter, fruit, cheese, mustard, soda pop, ice cream, bread, pizza

Now scroll down this page so the list is no longer visible. (Do not peek back at the list!)

keep scrolling...

3. Now, on the piece of scratch paper, write down as many of the items that you can remember. (Remember, no peeking back up at the list!!)

4. Check your results - do they imply a serial position effect (i.e., did you remember more of the items at the start and end of the list?)

http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Ebbinghaus.htm