How can the recency effect be removed from memory tasks?

The recency effect refers to the tendency for individuals to better remember items that were presented last in a sequence. This phenomenon occurs because the most recently presented items are still fresh in short-term memory. To reduce or eliminate the recency effect, a filled delay can be introduced between the presentation of the items and the recall task. This filled delay involves engaging participants in another task that prevents them from rehearsing the last items they heard, thereby diminishing their advantage in recall.

By providing a filled delay, the items that were recently added to memory get displaced or forgotten as the cognitive resources are diverted to the new task. This process helps to balance the memory encoding and retrieval by ensuring that the information is not biased toward the last few items, thus effectively diminishing the recency effect.