A spacing account of negative recency

The well-known recency effect in immediate free recall reverses when subjects attempt to recall items studied and tested on a series of prior lists. In this final free recall task, terminal list items are remembered less well than mid-list items (Craik, 1970). Because dual-store memory models naturally predict this negative-recency effect, it has long been cited as evidence favoring these models. Here, we replicate the basic negative-recency effect for the within-list serial position curve, and the positive-recency effect for the between-list serial position curve. Whereas we find a prominent negative recency effect for items that were recalled early in the initial recall period, this effect is markedly reduced for items recalled later in the recall period. When considering initial recall as a second presentation of the item that is to be recalled during final free recall, it is seen that as the number of items between initial presentation and recall increases, the probability of final free recall increases. As an alternative to dual-store accounts of negative recency, these results suggest that negative recency reflects the beneficial effects of spaced practice, where end-of-list items recalled early constitute massed repetitions, and endof-list items recalled late are spaced repetitions. To distinguish these two accounts, we examine negative recency in continual-distractor free recall. Contrary to the dual-store account, but in accord with the spacing account, we find robust negative recency which is enhanced for items recalled early in output.