Moishe can remember only the first two items and the last two items on the grocery list that his wife just read to him over the phone. The other five items in between are gone. This is an example of the .

The answer is serial position effect.

Explanation:

Serial position effect is a term that describes the tendency of an individual to remember the first and last items in a list with greater accuracy than items in the middle of the list.

The term which was coined by German psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus posits that the position which an item takes in a list affects how accurately it can be remembered by an individual when he/she has to recall items in the list.