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Correct retrieval of vocabulary

    When people learn a long series of vocabulary words and then have to recall them, the result is a serial position curve. Behind this is the finding that it is mainly the first and last words that are remembered well. This is due to two effects, the so-called primacy effect on the one hand and the recency effect on the other. These effects mean that the middle objects of a learned list are remembered more poorly than the objects at the beginning or end of this list. You can take advantage of this effect when learning by having your child examine or learn the vocabulary again and again in a different order. Vocabulary that is particularly difficult to remember should be placed at the beginning or end of such a list.