Definition:
The observation that, when trying to remember a word or name, people find it easier to recall the beginning and end of a lost item than the middle.
Etymology:
Coined by Jean Aitchison (see below)Examples and Observations:
- "The 'bathtub effect' (my term) is perhaps the most commonly reported finding in the literature on memory for words. People remember the beginnings and ends of words better than the middles, as if the word were a person lying in a bathtub, with their head out of the water at one end and their feet out at the other. And, just as in a bathtub the head is further out of the water and more prominent than the feet, so the beginnings of words are, on average, better remembered than the ends. . . .
"In malapropisms--cases in which a similar-sounding word has been wrongly selected, as in cylinders for 'syllables,' anecdote for 'antidote,' facilities for 'faculties'--the effect is even stronger."
(Jean Aitchison, Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon, 3rd edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2003) - "[C]ertain positions in words (initial, final) are more 'salient,' as are positions such as the beginning and the end of sentences. The consequence is the so-called 'bathtub' effect (according to which speakers will recall with more ease the beginning and the end of words . . .). Rhyme is affected by these facts . . .. Alliteration in English has been claimed to be the result of identical syllable onsets in word initial position, and not of mere sound repetition anywhere in the utterance . . ..
"The direct consequence of these facts is that sound differences located in initial or final positions should be weighted heavier than sound differences located in medial positions."
(Salvatore Attardo, Linguistic Theories of Humor, Walter de Gruyter, 1994)
