Primacy effect
Etymology
From "primacy" (Latin "primus," first) plus "effect." It is one half of the serial-position effect described in the memory experiments of Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late nineteenth century and refined by later cognitive psychologists.
noun phrase · /PRY-muh-see ee-fekt/
The tendency to remember the first items in a sequence better than those in the middle.
What it names
A predictable distortion of memory tied to position — being first confers an advantage — useful in everything from studying to structuring an argument.
Example
Because of the primacy effect, the first candidate interviewed made an outsized impression on the panel.
Related idea
The mirror image of the recency effect, the tendency to best recall the last items in a sequence; together they leave the middle most forgotten, which is why openings and closings carry disproportionate weight.