Recency and Primacy Effect

The first thing on a list engages your short term memory with something called the primacy effect. But even stronger, even more important is the last thing on the list in what's known as recency effect. The front cover and the back cover are the first two things you look at before deciding whether or not to buy a new book. You can almost always remember the last two digits of someone's phone number but never their middle three or four digit name.