27 · Remembering
Serial Position Effect
From a list, people recall the opening items and the closing ones. What's in between slips.
Evidence: Holds upWhat we do with it
- 01
Lead with the thing you most want people to keep. The end of a list fades within seconds unless they act on it right away.
- 02
In an email, the subject line and the first sentence do most of the work.
- 03
Never bury the one step that matters in the middle of a numbered list.
Examples
Getting it wrong, getting it right.
Don't
An onboarding email whose one important step is item four of seven.
Do
The important step first, in the subject line and the opening sentence.
The evidence
What the research says.
One of the most repeated findings in memory research. One detail matters for design: Murray Glanzer and Anita Cunitz showed in 1966 that the boost for the last items disappears after about 30 seconds of distraction. The boost for the first items lasts. It shows up in clicks, too: in Jamie Murphy, Charles Hofacker and Richard Mizerski's 2006 field experiments, visitors clicked the first link in a list most, with a smaller lift for the last.
How our view changed
For anything people need to remember later, we lead with it. The end of a list helps only if they act right away.
Sources
- Murdock, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(5).
- Glanzer, M., & Cunitz, A. R. (1966). Two storage mechanisms in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(4).
- Murphy, J., Hofacker, C., & Mizerski, R. (2006). Primacy and recency effects on clicking behavior. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2).
Last reviewed November 7, 2026. How we keep this current