AP Psychology Practice Test 2026 - Free AP Psychology Practice Questions and Study Guide

Question: 1 / 530

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

Chunking

Serial Position Effect

The term that describes our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list is known as the Serial Position Effect. This phenomenon occurs due to two different cognitive processes: the primacy effect and the recency effect. The primacy effect refers to enhanced recall for items presented at the beginning of a list, likely because they have been rehearsed more and are transferred to long-term memory. Conversely, the recency effect pertains to items at the end of a list, as they are still fresh in short-term memory.

Chunking, on the other hand, is a strategy that involves grouping information into manageable units to aid memory retention but does not specifically describe the position of items in a list. Echoic memory refers to the brief retention of auditory information, while semantic encoding is the process of encoding sensory input that has semantic meaning, focusing on the comprehension of the information rather than its order.

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Echoic Memory

Semantic Encoding

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