Episodic Memory
Free Recall Task
Also called: free recall test, serial position task, immediate free recall, delayed free recall, word list recall
Measure list recall: lists of words shown one at a time, each recalled in any order, scored by serial position and recall order.
10-12 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Preview any test free after you sign up.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 258
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 18
What it measures
Measures memory for word lists. Participants see lists of words one at a time and type the words they remember from each list, in any order.
Constructs
- Episodic memory
- Serial position effects
- Temporal contiguity
- Memory search
Research uses
- Episodic memory research
- Aging and memory research
- Research on how memory search is organized
How the paradigm works
The free recall task measures memory for lists of words. Participants see lists of 15 English words, one word every 2 seconds, and after each list type all the words they remember from it, in any order, within 60 seconds. Each word is entered on its own and stays listed. The standard session has 6 lists after a short practice list, and each session draws its words from a pool of concrete nouns without replacement, with no strongly related pair in a list. The word pool was chosen for this task by stated rules from word norms.
More about the paradigm
Recall depends on where a word came in the list. The last few words are recalled best and usually first (the recency effect), and the first few better than those in the middle (the primacy effect), as Murdock (1962) showed. A short delay filled with counting backward, a setting here, removes the recency effect but leaves primacy (Glanzer and Cunitz 1966). The order of recall also follows the list: after one word, people tend to recall a word studied near it, more often the one that came after it than the one before (Kahana 1996).
The main score is the proportion of list words recalled. Recall at each list position, primacy and recency, the probability of starting recall at each position, the lag conditional response probability with its forward asymmetry, the temporal factor score (Polyn, Norman and Kahana 2009), and prior-list intrusions, extra-list intrusions and repeats are also reported. Scores support research and do not diagnose.
Scores
- Proportion Recalled%
- List words recalled over list words shown, over all lists.
- Higher is better
- Primacy%
- Mean recall of the first 3 words of the lists.
- Higher means better recall of the first words
- Recency%
- Mean recall of the last 3 words of the lists.
- Higher means better recall of the last words; a delay before recall lowers it
- Forward Asymmetry%
- Lag-CRP at lag +1 minus lag-CRP at lag -1.
- Positive values mean recall moves forward through the list more often than backward
- Temporal Factor%
- For each move from one recalled word to the next, the share of words not yet recalled that were studied farther from the last word than the next one was, averaged.
- 0.5 means no temporal organization; higher means recall follows the study order more closely
- Prior-List Intrusionscount
- Mean number per list of words typed from earlier lists.
- Lower is better
- Extra-List Intrusionscount
- Mean number per list of words typed that were in no list.
- Lower is better
- Repeatscount
- Mean number per list of list words typed again.
- Context for the recall scores
- Recall at Position 1%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 1 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 2%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 2 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 3%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 3 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 4%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 4 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 5%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 5 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 6%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 6 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 7%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 7 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 8%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 8 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 9%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 9 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 10%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 10 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 11%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 11 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 12%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 12 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 13%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 13 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 14%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 14 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- Recall at Position 15%
- Share of lists in which the word shown in position 15 was recalled (the serial position curve).
- Higher is better
- First Recall at Position 1%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 1.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 2%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 2.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 3%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 3.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 4%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 4.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 5%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 5.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 6%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 6.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 7%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 7.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 8%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 8.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 9%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 9.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 10%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 10.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 11%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 11.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 12%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 12.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 13%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 13.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 14%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 14.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- First Recall at Position 15%
- Share of lists in which the first word typed was the word shown in position 15.
- Shows where in the list recall starts
- Lag-CRP at Lag -5%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 5 positions before it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag -4%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 4 positions before it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag -3%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 3 positions before it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag -2%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 2 positions before it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag -1%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 1 position before it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag +1%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 1 position after it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag +2%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 2 positions after it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag +3%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 3 positions after it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag +4%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 4 positions after it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
- Lag-CRP at Lag +5%
- Moves from one recalled word to the word studied 5 positions after it, over the times that word was still available to recall.
- Higher at lags near 0 means recall follows the study order
Use and evidence
258 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 17% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 96 of 395 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 62 |
| 2024 | 47 |
| 2023 | 50 |
| 2022 | 48 |
| 2021 | 51 |
| 2020 | 36 |
| 2019 | 51 |
| 2018 | 54 |
| 2017 | 46 |
| 2016 | 33 |
| 2015 | 51 |
| 2014 | 49 |
| 2013 | 66 |
| 2012 | 42 |
| 2011 | 39 |
| 2010 | 39 |
| 2009 | 30 |
| 2008 | 38 |
| 2007 | 29 |
| 2006 | 28 |
| 2005 | 22 |
| 2004 | 25 |
| 2003 | 28 |
| 2002 | 26 |
| 2001 | 12 |
| 2000 | 22 |
Use grade C
100 to 299 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade C
At least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 3
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 42
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 18
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Lists
- 6 lists (standard; 2 to 8) of 15 words, Murdock's 15-word lists at 2 seconds per word.
- Words
- Concrete English nouns of 4 to 8 letters from a pool of 125, drawn for each session without replacement. No strongly related pair shares a list, and each list's mean word frequency and length stay close to the pool's.
- Presentation
- Each word for 1,750 ms and then a 250 ms blank, 2,000 ms per word (standard; 1,000 to 3,000), switched on animation frames.
- Recall
- 60 seconds (standard; 30 to 120) on a visible timer. Each word is typed and entered on its own and stays listed; pasting is blocked.
- Delay
- None at the standard setting, so recall is immediate. As a setting, up to 60 seconds of counting backward by threes, typed, from a 3-digit number shown before recall.
- Spelling
- Case, accents and punctuation are ignored, and one wrong, missing, extra or swapped letter is accepted in words of 4 or more letters unless the typed word is another English word. A plural counts as the word.
- Practice
- A list of 6 words with untimed recall, then the number of words recalled.
The word pool was chosen for this task by stated rules from word norms; no published word list is used. The words are English; sessions run in other languages are flagged for review.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: free_recall_recall typed recall of each list from the scored run (practice excluded), with the counting rows of the same run. Typed recall has no chance level and no response is required, so accuracy is not judged against chance. Recalling no list word is flagged. Typing more words from outside the lists than list words, with at least 6 of them, is flagged. Blocked paste attempts are flagged. When the test has a delay, typing no count in any delay, or fewer than half the counts correct over at least 10 answers, is flagged. A session run in another language is flagged. A hidden tab withholds the percentile.
Why these rules
Free recall has no options to guess between, and recalling nothing can be a real result, so it is flagged for review rather than invalidated. Many words from outside the lists suggest the lists were not followed, and pasting could bring in words from elsewhere. The counting fills the delay so that the last words are not rehearsed; without it the recency scores may not reflect a delay (Glanzer and Cunitz 1966). The word lists are English. A session run in another language shows English words to a participant who may not read English fluently, so it is flagged for review. A hidden tab lets the study, delay or response timers run without the participant, so a percentile is withheld after one.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Lists | 6 | 2 to 8 |
| Time per word (ms) | 2,000 | 1,000 to 3,000 |
| Recall time (seconds) | 60 | 30 to 120 |
| Counting before recall (seconds) | 0 | 0 to 60 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Participant devices
- Instructions and screens: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. Words and sentences: English.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Free Recall Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Murdock, 1962; Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966), with the standard settings (lists: 6; time per word (ms): 2,000; recall time (seconds): 60; counting before recall (seconds): 0). The main score was proportion recalled (list words recalled over list words shown, over all lists).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Murdock, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(5), 482-488. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045106
- Glanzer, M., & Cunitz, A. R. (1966). Two storage mechanisms in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(4), 351-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(66)80044-0
- Kahana, M. J. (1996). Associative retrieval processes in free recall. Memory & Cognition, 24(1), 103-109. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197276The lag conditional response probability.
- Polyn, S. M., Norman, K. A., & Kahana, M. J. (2009). A context maintenance and retrieval model of organizational processes in free recall. Psychological Review, 116(1), 129-156. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014420The temporal factor score.
Source papers
- Murdock BB (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(5):482-488.Paradigm source, Young adults
- Glanzer M, Cunitz AR (1966). Two storage mechanisms in free recall. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(4):351-360.Paradigm source, Young adults
- Kahana MJ (1996). Associative retrieval processes in free recall. Memory & Cognition, 24(1):103-109.Paradigm source
- Polyn SM, Norman KA, Kahana MJ (2009). A context maintenance and retrieval model of organizational processes in free recall. Psychological Review, 116(1):129-156.Paradigm source
Questions
How long does the Free Recall Task take?
About 10 to 12 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Proportion Recalled, Primacy, Recency, Forward Asymmetry, Temporal Factor, Prior-List Intrusions, Extra-List Intrusions, Repeats, Recall at Position 1, Recall at Position 2, Recall at Position 3, Recall at Position 4, Recall at Position 5, Recall at Position 6, Recall at Position 7, Recall at Position 8, Recall at Position 9, Recall at Position 10, Recall at Position 11, Recall at Position 12, Recall at Position 13, Recall at Position 14, Recall at Position 15, First Recall at Position 1, First Recall at Position 2, First Recall at Position 3, First Recall at Position 4, First Recall at Position 5, First Recall at Position 6, First Recall at Position 7, First Recall at Position 8, First Recall at Position 9, First Recall at Position 10, First Recall at Position 11, First Recall at Position 12, First Recall at Position 13, First Recall at Position 14, First Recall at Position 15, Lag-CRP at Lag -5, Lag-CRP at Lag -4, Lag-CRP at Lag -3, Lag-CRP at Lag -2, Lag-CRP at Lag -1, Lag-CRP at Lag +1, Lag-CRP at Lag +2, Lag-CRP at Lag +3, Lag-CRP at Lag +4 and Lag-CRP at Lag +5. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Free Recall Task used in research?
258 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 17% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 96 of 395 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade C). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Free Recall Task have?
In the published research, 3 papers report its test-retest reliability and 18 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade C in the ConductCognition test census).
Which settings can a researcher change?
Lists (2 to 8), time per word (ms) (1,000 to 3,000), recall time (seconds) (30 to 120) and counting before recall (seconds) (0 to 60). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
The instructions and screens are in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. The words and sentences stay in English, so sessions in other languages are flagged for review. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
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