A Pluto.Studio app
Debias Spot your own cognitive biases · Android · Free

Serial Recall Effect

The serial recall effect is the tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than those in the middle.

What should be remembered Reducing events to key elements

This effect occurs because the first items (primacy) are stored in long-term memory, while the last items (recency) remain in short-term memory. Middle items are vulnerable to interference and often forgotten. For example, when recalling a shopping list, you'll likely remember the first and last items best.

Would you catch it?

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.

Scenario 1Which bias?

When attending a day-long workshop, Carlos retains the morning session's key points and the afternoon wrap-up, but the content from the midday sessions has faded from his memory.

Scenario 2Which bias?

During a negotiation, the negotiator remembers the opening offer and the final compromise but can't recall the counteroffers made in between.

100+ more scenarios for this bias alone. 18,869 across all 188 — plus a log of which biases are yours.
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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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