Is it true that one find it most difficult to recall the words at the bottom of the list?

Answer 1

This is not necessarily true, it may be dependent on a number of things. Your memory for example, do you have the ability to store and recall all words on the list and that may depend on the length of the list, The standard of education that you have achieved. The type of job that you do. Do you have a long term memory or a short term memory. In what order are the words presented, an alphabetical list may be of more advantage than an random list. The length of the words may be important or whether they are a little obscure or not. Did you read the list or are you trying to remember the spoken word.

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There is a sort of a guide, a general statistic when answering such questions as yours. That is that most people remember the few things that they saw, heard or read last. That could be as little as 7% of the total in a noisy environment, more , of course in a quiet room.. So, the short answer to your question is that it may be more difficult to recall words at the head of the list. But, then it all depends......try an experiment yourself

Answer 2

Yes, this is known as the recency effect. People often have better memory recall for items at the beginning and end of a list, with the middle items being the most difficult to recall.