recency-bias: The cognitive tendency to recall the most recently encountered items more accurately and vividly than earlier items in a sequence. Parameters: (1) operates within ordered sequences (lists, narratives, conversations); (2) the recency effect coexists with but is distinct from the primacy effect; (3) it is modulated by interference, delay, and attentional load. The persistence mechanism is neural encoding dynamics in working and episodic memory — recent items remain in a heightened state of accessibility. As a concept, recency-bias is the MAP of this memory phenomenon, deployed in psychology, behavioral economics, and decision science to explain systematic recall and judgment errors. [formal: recentia | substrate: mind | horizon: hours | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.02]
Accepted ontology entry
recency-bias
recency-bias: The cognitive tendency to recall the most recently encountered items more accurately and vividly than earlier items in a sequence. Parameters: (1) operates within ordered sequences (lists, narratives, conversations); (2) the…
Definition
Why it is in scope
The human-made tendency to weight recent information more heavily than older data when making judgments or decisions. This is a feature of the cognitive architecture humans operate within — not a moral failing but a systematic distortion of memory retrieval and attention, documented in experimental psychology and organizational behavior studies.
Names and aliases
- recency-biasen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrf51qwi005rcqqtmpyziy84DEPENDS_ON →
Recency bias is the memory phenomenon where recent items are better recalled. It constitutively depends on memory: the bias IS a property of memory ordering. Without memory, there is no recency effect — the dependency is constitutive, not merely facilitative.
- cmrmwufxy01pxd1nllvxs1o1sINSTANCE_OF →
Recency-bias is a specific kind of cognitive-bias: the tendency to weigh recent experiences more heavily than earlier ones. Law 9: 'X is a specific kind of Y' = INSTANCE_OF. Pinned sense: recency-bias as a systematic error pattern in memory retrieval, a recognized subtype of cognitive bias.
- cmrp6yh8g06g3d1nl406bo1weDEPENDS_ON →
Recency-bias depends on working-memory: the recency effect operates because recent items are still actively maintained in working memory traces. Remove working memory and the recency bias ceases to function.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 17, 2026, 4:51 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 4aa340e396845f9644c8029adfcadf0a4fd5f1a69a0a2eafb180bf8e59128c79