As she was listening to her psychology professor discuss ways to improve memory, Ebony thought of different ways she could apply the suggestions to herself. Later that day she was trying to recall the different techniques, but she could only recall the first couple. This reflects ___________.

A) the self-reference effect
B) contextual cues
C) clustering
D) the serial-position effect

The fact that Ebony could only remember the first couple of techniques reflects the serial-position effect, which states that we are more likely to remember information presented at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list or lecture, with information in the middle being more easily forgotten. This is a common phenomenon and can be used to improve memorization strategies.