A THEORY OF THE SERIAL POSITION EFFECT

1962/08/01 by EDWARD A. FEIGENBAUM, Edward A. Feigenbaum, Herbert A. Simon +1 · 212 citations
Mathematics · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Cognitive psychology #Mathematics #Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies #Neural dynamics and brain function #Parametric statistics #Position (finance) #Psychology #Serial position effect #Statistics #Visual perception and processing mechanisms

paper · doi:10.1111/j.2044-8295.1962.tb00836.x

published in British Journal of Psychology 53(3), 307-320 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 1962/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

The paper proposes a theory of the well‐known serial position effect that makes quantitative predictions, acceptable by non‐parametric tests, of the observed amount of bowing of the serial position curve. The theory, which stems from viewing the central nervous system as an information‐processing system, is compared with the Lepley‐Hull hypothesis and Atkinson's theory of the serial phenomena, and is shown to be more satisfactory than the older explanations.

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