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Running head: THE REPLICATION OF THE FREE RECALL STUDY
Successful replication of Glanzer and Cunitz's Free Recall Task Experiment
Name
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Author Note
Student number:
Tutor’s name:
Group number:
Name of the course: Research Methods 1
Filing date: 30 October 2022
Word count Introduction: 581
Word count Discussion: 583
, 2
THE REPLICATION OF THE FREE RECALL STUDY
Abstract
The current research aimed to recreate the experiment researchers Glanzer and Cunitz conducted in
1966. During the experiment, the Atkinson and Shiffrin Modal model was used to evaluate the
hypothesis about the two different memory systems: short-term and long-term. A free recall task was
used in the experiment to determine the degree to which a primacy and recency effect occurred under
two distinct circumstances: immediate and delayed recall. In the condition of delayed recall, the delay
period lasted for thirty seconds, but in the condition of quick recall, there was no pause. According to
recent study findings, people have a better tendency to remember words either at the beginning or at the
end of a list. The terms closer to the beginning of the list were more accessible to remember than those
closer to the middle. The primacy effect can be seen clearly in both the immediate and the delayed
recall situations. These findings suggest the operation of two separate memory systems, namely
memory for the short and long term, and provide evidence for the successful repetition of the
experiment.
Keywords: memory systems, immediate recall, delayed recall, primacy effect, recency effect
Running head: THE REPLICATION OF THE FREE RECALL STUDY
Successful replication of Glanzer and Cunitz's Free Recall Task Experiment
Name
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Author Note
Student number:
Tutor’s name:
Group number:
Name of the course: Research Methods 1
Filing date: 30 October 2022
Word count Introduction: 581
Word count Discussion: 583
, 2
THE REPLICATION OF THE FREE RECALL STUDY
Abstract
The current research aimed to recreate the experiment researchers Glanzer and Cunitz conducted in
1966. During the experiment, the Atkinson and Shiffrin Modal model was used to evaluate the
hypothesis about the two different memory systems: short-term and long-term. A free recall task was
used in the experiment to determine the degree to which a primacy and recency effect occurred under
two distinct circumstances: immediate and delayed recall. In the condition of delayed recall, the delay
period lasted for thirty seconds, but in the condition of quick recall, there was no pause. According to
recent study findings, people have a better tendency to remember words either at the beginning or at the
end of a list. The terms closer to the beginning of the list were more accessible to remember than those
closer to the middle. The primacy effect can be seen clearly in both the immediate and the delayed
recall situations. These findings suggest the operation of two separate memory systems, namely
memory for the short and long term, and provide evidence for the successful repetition of the
experiment.
Keywords: memory systems, immediate recall, delayed recall, primacy effect, recency effect
