The serial position effect is a psychological phenomenon that describes how people tend to remember the first and last items in a list better than those in the middle. This effect is often illustrated through experiments where participants recall words from a list, showing higher accuracy for the first few items, known as the primacy effect, and the last few items, known as the recency effect. This effect occurs because the first items are rehearsed more and transferred to long-term memory, while the last items are still fresh in short-term memory. Understanding the serial position effect can help improve learning and memory strategies, such as when studying or presenting information.