Which principle refers to the idea that information presented first is more likely to be remembered?

Which principle refers to the idea that information presented first is more likely to be remembered?

• A. Primacy
• B. Recency
• C. Relevance
• D. Realism

Answer: (A)

Primacy effect: people tend to remember information presented at the beginning of a sequence better than what comes later. This happens because early items get more attention and time for rehearsal, making them more likely to be encoded into long-term memory. As new items come in, there’s less opportunity to rehearse the early ones, so recall often drops for the middle items. In contrast, recency refers to the tendency to remember the last items because they’re still in short-term memory at the moment of recall. Relevance and realism aren’t about memory timing in this way. To apply this, place key points first when introducing material and gently reinforce them early on through brief reviews.

Primacy effect: people tend to remember information presented at the beginning of a sequence better than what comes later. This happens because early items get more attention and time for rehearsal, making them more likely to be encoded into long-term memory. As new items come in, there’s less opportunity to rehearse the early ones, so recall often drops for the middle items. In contrast, recency refers to the tendency to remember the last items because they’re still in short-term memory at the moment of recall. Relevance and realism aren’t about memory timing in this way. To apply this, place key points first when introducing material and gently reinforce them early on through brief reviews.