Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Serial Position Effect01:03

Serial Position Effect

534
The serial position effect is a cognitive phenomenon where individuals are more likely to recall the first and last items in a list compared to those in the middle. This effect is divided into the primacy effect and the recency effect. The primacy effect is observed when the initial items in a list are remembered better. This occurs because these items are rehearsed more frequently or receive more elaborative processing, allowing them to be encoded into long-term memory more effectively. For...
534
System of Memory01:23

System of Memory

7.3K
Memory is categorized into three major systems: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM). These systems differ in their capacity and the duration for which they can hold information. Sensory memory captures raw sensory input from the environment, holding it for just a few seconds or less. For example, on hearing a brief, loud sound, like a car horn honking, the sound seems to linger in the mind for a moment even after it stops. This is an instance of sensory memory...
7.3K
Working Memory01:24

Working Memory

839
Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this...
839
Position-effect Variegation02:32

Position-effect Variegation

7.0K
In 1928, a German botanist Emil Heitz observed the moss nuclei with a DNA binding dye. He observed that while some chromatin regions decondense and spread out in the interphase nucleus, others do not. He termed them euchromatin and heterochromatin, respectively. He proposed that the heterochromatin regions reflect a functionally inactive state of the genome. It was later confirmed that heterochromatin is transcriptionally repressed, and euchromatin is transcriptionally active chromatin.
7.0K
Long-Term Memory01:18

Long-Term Memory

663
Long-term memory is a relatively permanent type of memory, capable of storing vast amounts of information over extended periods. Its storage capacity is generally considered unlimited.
Long-term memory can be categorized into two primary types: explicit and implicit memory. Explicit memory, also known as declarative memory, involves the conscious recollection of information that we deliberately try to remember, recall, and articulate. This type of memory encompasses specific facts, events, and...
663
Traumatic Memory01:20

Traumatic Memory

563
Emotionally traumatic events often lead to memories that are exceptionally vivid and enduring, sometimes persisting with remarkable clarity throughout an individual's life. A classic example of this phenomenon is a person who survives a car accident. Even years later, they may recall every detail of the event with startling accuracy — the screeching of the tires, the jarring impact, and the acrid smell of burning rubber. Such vividness contrasts sharply with how an individual...
563

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Judgments of effort and associated cues are influenced by stimulus context.

Consciousness and cognition·2025
Same author

Boredom signals deviation from a cognitive homeostatic set point.

Communications psychology·2025
Same author

Does expecting external memory support cost recognition memory?

Memory & cognition·2025
Same author

Numerical comparison is spatial-Except when it is not.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2024
Same author

Semantic partitioning facilitates memory for object location through category-partition cueing.

Memory (Hove, England)·2024
Same author

Productions Need Not Match Study Items to Confer a Production Advantage, But It Helps.

Experimental psychology·2024
Same journal

Mind wandering during first- and foreign-language reading.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Lexical word processing is unaffected by rapid invisible frequency tagging in reading: Evidence from eye movements.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Anxiety modulates voluntary attentional orienting to emotional gaze cues: Eye movements for pro- and anti-saccades.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Faster key-press responses to front vowels than back vowels when matching heard vowels with represented vowels.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

Testing the interleaving effect without response bias: A forced-choice reevaluation of Kornell and Bjork (2008).

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
Same journal

The impact of social interaction on abstract concepts.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 23, 2026

C. elegans Positive Butanone Learning, Short-term, and Long-term Associative Memory Assays
09:58

C. elegans Positive Butanone Learning, Short-term, and Long-term Associative Memory Assays

Published on: March 11, 2011

30.4K

Offloading memory: Serial position effects.

Megan O Kelly1, Evan F Risko2

  • 1University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada. mo2kelly@uwaterloo.ca.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|June 5, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Cognitive offloading, using external aids for memory, impairs recall of early information, similar to directed forgetting. This suggests offloading may involve active forgetting mechanisms for stored data.

Keywords:
Cognitive OffloadingDistributed MemoryIntentional ForgettingSerial Position Effects

More Related Videos

Combining Behavior and EEG to Study the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Episodic Memory
08:16

Combining Behavior and EEG to Study the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Episodic Memory

Published on: May 11, 2020

8.9K
Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories
08:53

Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories

Published on: November 14, 2018

10.2K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 23, 2026

C. elegans Positive Butanone Learning, Short-term, and Long-term Associative Memory Assays
09:58

C. elegans Positive Butanone Learning, Short-term, and Long-term Associative Memory Assays

Published on: March 11, 2011

30.4K
Combining Behavior and EEG to Study the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Episodic Memory
08:16

Combining Behavior and EEG to Study the Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Episodic Memory

Published on: May 11, 2020

8.9K
Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories
08:53

Using a Classroom-Based Deese Roediger McDermott Paradigm to Assess the Effects of Imagery on False Memories

Published on: November 14, 2018

10.2K

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Memory Studies

Background:

  • Cognitive offloading, the use of external tools to reduce memory load, is common but its effect on memory is unclear.
  • Emerging research suggests offloading may activate forgetting mechanisms, akin to directed forgetting.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the memorial fate of cognitively offloaded information.
  • To test if offloading information engages similar memory processes as directed forgetting.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted using free recall tasks with an external aid.
  • Participants completed recall trials with an external aid, followed by a final recall trial without the aid.
  • A comparison was made between a group expecting to use the aid (offloading) and a control group (no-offloading).

Main Results:

  • The offloading group showed a memory impairment for offloaded items.
  • This impairment was characterized by a reduced primacy effect.
  • A typical recency effect remained intact in the offloading group.

Conclusions:

  • Cognitive offloading impacts memory recall, specifically diminishing recall for early information.
  • The observed memory pattern mirrors findings in directed forgetting research, supporting the link between offloading and forgetting mechanisms.
  • Offloading information may involve active processes that reduce the memorial trace of that information.