Two-component theory of the suffix effect: Contrary findings.

Abstract

The suffix effect is the reduction in the recallability of the last few items of a just-spoken list caused by appending a nominally irrelevant item, or suffix. The effect is widely assumed to comprise a "structural" terminal component, affecting just the last item, and a strategy-sensitive preterminal component. In a series of 8 experiments, the authors fail to replicate any of a variety of findings widely cited as the empirical basis for this 2-component theory. The authors also question the support that earlier findings provide for the theory, even if they had proved replicable. They attribute the entire suffix effect to the grouping of the suffix with the list items.