What is the recency effect in memory recall?

The recency effect refers to the enhanced ability to recall items that were presented at the end of a sequence. This phenomenon is observed in studies of memory where participants are typically better at remembering the last few items they heard or saw just before performing a recall task. The recency effect is often attributed to the items still being active in short-term memory or working memory, making them more readily available for recall when prompted.

When individuals are asked to remember a list of items, those at the end of the list benefit from having just been presented, and thus, they have not been displaced by older items in memory. This effect is a key aspect of understanding how information is processed and retained, illustrating the distinctions between short-term and long-term memory storage mechanisms.

In contrast, other options provide an overview of memory phenomena that do not align with the recency effect. For example, better memory for items in the middle of a list pertains to the serial position effect's other component, the primacy effect, which describes improved recall for items at the beginning of a sequence. Uniform recall indicates no variation, which contradicts the common findings about memory recall variability based on item positioning in sequences.