EVIDENCE AGAINST A SHORT-TERM-STORE ACCOUNT OF LONG-TERM RECENCY EFFECTS

When subjects perform a distractor task before and after every item on a list, recall of the last item is much higher than recall of items f rom the middle of the list. Koppenaal and Glanzer (1990) have shown th at this long-term recency effect can be eliminated by using, after the last item, a distractor task different from that used elsewhere on th e list. They interpreted this finding as evidence in favor of a short- term-store account of long-term recency effects. This account is chall enged by the results reported here. Practice either on the task or on time-sharing between the task and list items had little impact on the recency effect. Also, substantial recency effects were found when a di fferent distractor task occurred after every list position. Thus, it i s not true that long-term recency effects are found only when subjects have an opportunity to adapt to the distractor task. Our results are not consistent with a short-term-store account of recency effects.