Written by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Verified for the 2026 exam
Verified for the 2026 examโขWritten by the Fiveable Content Team โข Last updated September 2025
Definition
A list of items refers to an array of individual pieces of information presented sequentially or simultaneously, usually for memorization or evaluation purposes.
Related terms
Serial position effect: The serial position effect refers to the tendency for people to have better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list, compared to those in the middle.
Chunking is a memory strategy where individual pieces of information are grouped together into meaningful units. For example, remembering '1234567890' as '12 34 56 78 90'.
Primacy effect and recency effect: The primacy effect refers to better recall for items at the beginning of a list, while the recency effect refers to better recall for items at the end of a list. Both effects contribute to why middle items are often forgotten.