Serial position effect

In 1962, Murdock did an experiment with the aim to provide evidence to support the multi-store explanation of memory. The multi-store model suggests that there are three types of memory: sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory. In his study, 40 participants were shown a list of between 10 and 40 worlds. Each word was shown for 1-2 seconds and when all the words had been shown, the participants were asked to recall as many of them as possible. Murdock found that most people remembered the first and the last words of the list, and the ones in the middle were more easily forgotten. This is known as the serial position effect. Remembering the first words would be called the primary effect and recalling the last words would be the recency effect. During the first few words the participant have time to go over and kinda reflect over the words and then by waiting for the whole list to finish, Murdock suggested that the memory was moved from the short term memory (STM) to the long term memory (LTM). The recency effect works since we can keep things in our STM for a while and that's what we are thought to do. But the words in the middle become replaced and moved from the STM, but they never make it to LTM so they are easily forgotten. This study suggests that memories are pulled out from two different section.