Figure 1.

Schematic illustration demonstrating how the speed and accuracy of retrieval, measured by the response-signal speed–accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure, vary with recency. As more time and items are interpolated between study and test, the availability of a memory representation decreases continuously, engendering lower levels of asymptotic accuracy. In contrast, retrieval speed shows a dichotomous pattern: Retrieval speed (SAT intercept and rate) is constant across all serial positions except the last unit processed (recency = 1), which can be accessed 50% faster than all other representations.