Memory for serial position: Effects of spacing, vocalization, and stimulus suffixes.

Several theorists have argued that the magnitude of recency effects in recall reflects the clarity of temporal-order information in memory. Six experiments tested this proposal by observing the effects of three variables (interitem spacing, vocalization, and stimulus suffixes) that can influence the magnitude of the recency effect on memory for serial position. Spacing had no beneficial effects on memory for position. Vocalization benefited memory for position but only at the beginning and end of a list. Stimulus suffixes interfered with memory for position only at the end of a list. The entire pattern of results cannot be explained by temporal-coding accounts of the recency effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)