By Shelley A. Gable
Think about the last course you took. Maybe it was an online insurance continuing education course.
What pieces stand out the most?
While hopefully there were memorable highlights from throughout the course, you can probably also recall how the it started and ended. This is because of primacy and recency effects.
What are primacy and recency effects?
- Primacy is our tendency to remember the
beginning of a sequence especially well. - Recency is the tendency to remember the
end of a sequence especially well.
Several memory studies have prompted subjects to memorize a sequence of words and recall them later (sometimes minutes later, sometimes hours or days later). In study after study, subjects are most likely to remember the earliest and latest words in the sequence.
Why does this matter?
Although you’re probably not trying to memorize a sequence of words when you take that insurance continuing education course, this same principle applies to sequences of information in a course. It can also apply to the sequence of topics you review if you’re studying for a licensing exam.
Leverage primacy and recency in online learning.
When you start an online course, pay attention to the content at the beginning. Many courses warm you up by placing the easiest content (or even a review of what you should already know) at the beginning. Because it’s easy or familiar, it’s tempting to skim and click through it quickly.
There are at least two reasons you should avoid this temptation and focus on absorbing this early information.
- Information presented at the beginning of a course often serves as a foundation for presenting more complex concepts later. Neglecting to comprehend some of this foundational content may make it challenging to fully grasp ideas that build upon it.
- According to the primacy effect, you’re likely to remember some of this early stuff reasonably well (assuming that you’re mentally “tuned in,” of course). If you can make clear connections between later, more complex information and early, more basic information, you might enhance your ability to recall that later content after you’ve completed the course.
Leverage primacy and recency while studying.
How do you study for a licensing exam? Do you flip through flashcards? Quiz yourself from notes? Skim through manuals?
Regardless of your preferred method, you’re probably taking a chunk of time to review a series of topics in hopes of remembering as much as possible. Primacy and recency are handy here too. To get the most out of your study session, review the more challenging to remember information right away. Then end your study session by revisiting that same information. Although you might not get through as much information with this repetition at the beginning and end, you’ll be more likely to remember that stuff. And this just might free you up to focus on other information in your next study session.
The logic behind primacy and recency may seem pretty basic. And well…it is. So hopefully you find this just as easy apply to your next continuing education course or study session.
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Shelley A. Gable is an instructional designer and freelance writer. She has developed training for functions such as financial services, call centers, and engineering education. Shelley has written articles on topics related to training and management for print and online publications. Visit Shelley’s website at http://shelleygable.webs.com.
