Lesson 3.1.1.2.4

3.1.1.2.4 Murdock's serial position curve study Quiz: AQA Psychology, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 3.1.1.2.4, Murdock's serial position curve study: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA GCSE Psychology (8182), Unit 1: Memory, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Which recall method did Murdock use in his 1962 serial position study?

    • Serial recall
    • Free recall
    • Recognition
    • Cued recall

  2. What overall shape was produced by Murdock's serial position curve?

    • Linear line
    • L-shape
    • U-shape
    • Bell curve

  3. What type of words did Murdock use in his serial position curve study?

    • Unrelated words
    • Associated words
    • Rhyming words
    • Abstract nouns

  4. Which two memory effects were demonstrated in Murdock's serial position study?

    • Decay and displacement
    • Proactive and retroactive
    • Primacy and recency
    • Encoding and retrieval

  5. In Murdock's study, why were early words recalled better than middle words?

    • Visual priming
    • Stored in STM
    • Auditory decay
    • Transferred to LTM

  6. In Murdock's study, what type of recall allowed participants to remember words in any order?

    • Serial recall
    • Free recall
    • Cued recall
    • Recognition

  7. What happens to the recency effect if a distractor task is placed after the list?

    • Primacy is eliminated
    • It stays unchanged
    • It increases
    • It is eliminated

  8. Which two effects in Murdock's study provide evidence for separate memory stores?

    • Cueing and chunking
    • Primacy and recency
    • Encoding and retrieval
    • Storage and decay

  9. In Murdock's serial position curve study, what was the independent variable?

    • List length
    • Presentation speed
    • Participant age
    • Word position

  10. Which part of the serial position curve is associated with short-term memory?

    • The asymptote
    • The recency effect
    • The middle dip
    • The primacy effect

  11. Why is Murdock's serial position study criticised for lacking ecological validity?

    • Lack of controls
    • Artificial word lists
    • Unclear instructions
    • Small sample size

  12. What shape is created when recall rate is plotted against word position in Murdock's study?

    • Flat baseline
    • Straight linear line
    • Inverted U-shape
    • U-shaped curve

  13. Who conducted the 1962 serial position curve study using word lists?

    • Bennet Murdock
    • Ivan Pavlov
    • John Watson
    • Frederic Bartlett

  14. What was the dependent variable in Murdock's serial position curve study?

    • Word length
    • Heart rate
    • Percentage of recall
    • Time taken

  15. Which serial position curve result would challenge the multi-store model of memory?

    • A flat line
    • High recency only
    • High primacy only
    • A U-shape

  16. According to serial position findings, where should key information be placed in a list?

    • At the start
    • In the middle
    • At the end
    • Start and end

  17. Which memory store is responsible for the primacy effect in Murdock's study?

    • Long-term memory
    • Sensory memory
    • Short-term memory
    • Working memory

  18. What causes a serial position study to show a primacy effect but no recency effect?

    • Faster word delivery
    • Delay before recall
    • Meaningful words
    • Shorter list length

  19. What is the term for remembering items better depending on their location in a list?

    • Cue dependent decay
    • Context dependency
    • Proactive interference
    • Serial position effect

  20. Why do middle words in a list have the lowest recall in Murdock's study?

    • Held in STM
    • Rehearsed into LTM
    • Emotionally negative
    • Displaced from STM

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