Have you ever thought about how psychological processes effect your everyday life? Whether at work, school, or another common place, how your most recent actions/behavior can impact a professor’s, co-worker, or supervisor’s opinion of your capabilities? If you are like me, I never really thought about how others would use my most recent behavior as a reference point of my abilities and/or character. I always assumed that an assessment would be made based on my work quality over time; however, findings have shown that this may not always be the case. While there are a number of reasons this can occur, one of the highlighted explanations was a result of the “recency effect.” By definition, the recency effect is “superior memory for stimuli presented at the end of a sequence” (Goldstein, 2011, p. 153). Although this finding was connected to a memory test from a list of words to be recalled, the same outcome can be thought of with respect to real world examples. To explore this effect in more detail, relating it to a work experience, let’s look at the annual performance evaluation and how it can be altered by recent interactions.
In its article, prompting employees on mistakes made during performance reviews, Forbes Magazine (2010) shares the common outcome of the recency effect in action:
…This is a psychology term for when we overly focus on the most recent event as the basis for analyzing the entire past year’s performance. So, if you have some mistake happen to you very recently and it ends up being the entire topic of your performance review even if you’ve done a great job the rest of the year, you’ve been a victim of the recency effect. Some bosses seem to have no memory, so they only base their opinions on the most recent events and opinions from others to form their opinion on what’s happening (online).
Although it may not be intentional, it is sometimes easier to remember the last impression made versus the overall history. Think about a recent experience that you’ve had, positive or negative, that has taken place at work with someone. Did the experience cause you to favor or dislike a person based on the behavior exhibited? If so, was it easier to recall this than the entire history of interactions? Your responses to these questions may surprise you.
Many impressions can help us form an opinion or emotion about something – the good, the bad, and the ugly. The recency effect, is just one illustration of how this can occur in a real world scenario. While it is not ideal to apply the most recent behavior/encounter to a situation, it is a strong probability that this is what has taken place. Perhaps it is worth taking a step back and really evaluating the person and/or situation, before jumping to the first opinion recalled. This can help prevent a lasting impression from a brief circumstance.
References:
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Jackson, E. (2012, January 9). Ten biggest mistakes bosses make in performance reviews. Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/09/ten-reasons-performance-reviews-are-done-terribly/