The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect serial position had upon recall of magazine advertisements and to discover if primacy and recency both played a part in recall of adverts i. e. were the short term memory store (STM) and the long term memory store (LTM) both utilised when recalling magazine advertisements. The experimental/ alternative hypothesis was that products from adverts at the beginning (positions 1-4) and end of the block (positions 13-16) would be correctly recalled significantly more than adverts in the middle of the block (positions 5-12).
The null hypothesis for this experiment stated that the serial position of adverts in a block of 16 will have no effect on recall of the products from these adverts. The independent variable in this experiment was the serial position of the advert and the dependent variable was the number of products from the adverts that participants recalled out of 16 adverts. Repeated measures design was used because it was the most valid design and it was the most appropriate due to the nature of the experiment i. e. all participants saw a beginning, middle and end of a series of adverts.
Any other design would have hindered the validity and reliability of the experiment. Twenty participants were split into two groups and were asked to observe 16 magazine adverts. Each participant in each group was asked to recall the adverts they were shown in the order they believed they saw them. Both groups viewed the same advertisements but they were shown in different orders to each group. To ensure the most valid results, adverts which came in the middle (positions 5-12) of the block for the first group (Group A) were placed in primacy and recency positions (positions 1-4 and 13-16) for the second group (group B).
The results of the experiment showed there was a greater than 5% difference between condition A (primacy and recency positions 1-4 and 13-16) and condition B (middle positions 5-12). The mean number of products recalled from condition A was 6. 7 whereas for condition B the mean was just 4. 6, which is a significant difference. After calculating the Wilcoxon T score it was possible to accept the experimental hypothesis and reject the null.
The conclusion of this experiment is that serial position of magazine advertisements within a list does affect recall of products from those adverts, particularly in the primacy and recency positions (1-4 and 13-16). Introduction Previous research and theory: The serial position effect incorporates the primacy and recency effect. This theory suggests that information at the beginning of a list, can be recalled effectively due to the fact that it has been rehearsed and therefore passed into the long-term memory store (LTM). It is then recalled from the LTM when needed. This process is the primacy effect.
Recency effect, however, occurs differently. The theory suggests that information towards the end of a list can be recalled effectively because it has been temporarily stored in the short-term memory store (STM) and when this information is needed, it is extracted from here. Thus, information in the middle of the list is forgotten, as it has not been rehearsed and new information coming into the STM displaces it. Glanzer and Cunitz (1966) investigated the idea of there being two mechanisms in free recall. Their study involved two groups of participants being given the same list of words.