Figure 5.6 | Serial Position Effects for a One-Trial Free Recall Task | The superior recall of the first few items presented relative to those in the middle of the list is called the primacy effect. This effect is due to the fact that the primary items in the list are studied more and so have a higher probability of being in long-term memory for later recall. The recency effect refers to the superior recall of the last few items presented versus those in the middle of the list. This effect is due to the easy immediate recall of the items presently in short-term memory (those recently presented).