List-Length Effect
The tendency to remember fewer items from a longer list compared to a shorter one, even when the list contains the same target information.
This effect occurs because longer lists increase cognitive load and create more interference, making retrieval harder. For example, you might recall a name from a list of 5 items more easily than from a list of 20, as the extra items compete for attention and memory resources.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
Priya is at the pharmacy. She remembers the three side effects listed for her new medication but gets confused when trying to recall the side effects from a previous medication with a longer list.
At the grocery store, Maria quickly remembers the three items on her short list: milk, bread, and eggs. Later, when she tries to recall the fifteen items from her longer shopping list, she can only remember about half of them.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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