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The serial-position effect indicates that step 1 will more easily be recalled due to the primacy effect and step 6 will also be likely to be recalled due to the recency effect. For example, if a teacher is introducing a 6-step process to solve a given problem, they can assume that steps 3 or 4 are less likely to be recalled than step 1 or 6. Teachers should carefully consider the order that information is presented to students. It can be applied to the order that teachers introduce content in the classroom. The serial-position effect has implications well beyond trying to memorise lists of items. Our brains have a bias toward remembering the first items on a list for no clear reason. If the brain can only remember so many items, why not randomly choose any item? This is what psychologists refer to as a cognitive bias. The primacy effect makes less sense however: why does the brain recall the first few items more than the middle items? Assuming that all items have equal importance, there is no rational reason why the brain automatically places more importance on the first items than it does on middle items. This has obvious implications for planning lessons and lesson sequences. It is more likely that students will recall the first and last items delivered in a lesson. The recency effect makes logical sense: more recent items replace old items in your short-term memory and the final items on a list are the most recent to be seen or heard. You will probably be able to recall the last item or 2 as well. If you were shown a list of 20 items, you are probably going to remember the first few items easily.
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i This is known as the serial-position effect. When presented with a list of items, people tend to remember the first and last items the most, and the middle items the least. Teachers can take advantage of this tendency by presenting the most important information first and last. Serial-position effect – the psychological tendency for humans to remember the first and last items in a list or sequence. Serial-position effect: A classroom guide for teachers and teacher aides
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