Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of individual differences in working memory capacity on the primacy and recency effect in free, forward, and backward recalls when delay between the learning phase and the recall phase was inserted. Working memory capacity was measured by the word span test and the listening span test. The delay was created by the Kanji (Chinese character) test. In the experiment, the predictive power of the listening span test to the recency effect was not significant. Instead, the correlation coefficient between the listening span test and the primacy effect was negative in the forward recall condition. This result suggested that participants with a low executive function could gain a stronger primacy effect.
