title: The primacy model: a new model of immediate serial recall.
abstract: A new model of immediate serial recall is presented: the primacy model. The primacy model stores order information by means of the assumption that the strength of activation of successive list items decreases across list position to form a primacy gradient. Ordered recall is supported by a repeated cycle of operations involving a noisy choice of the most active item followed by suppression of the chosen item. Word-length and list-length effects are attributed to a decay process that occurs both during input, when effective rehearsal is prevented, and during output. The phonological similarity effect is attributed to a second stage of processing at which phonological confusions occur. The primacy model produces accurate simulations of the effects of word length, list length, and phonological similarity.
authors.affiliation: Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, United Kingdom. mike.page@mrc.apu.cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Page
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Norris
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical