Definition
One of Thorndike's laws of learning, stating that things most recently learned or practiced are best remembered, while material learned or used longer ago tends to fade and become harder to recall.
Plain English
What you've practiced most recently is what you remember best. The longer it's been since you did something, the more it slips.
Context Anchor
Used in flight instruction when planning reviews, practice sessions, preflight briefings, and refresher training.
Derivation
From the Latin 'recens,' meaning 'fresh' or 'new.' Recency in this context simply means how fresh the learning is in the student's mind.
Why Pilots Care
Instructors end lessons or briefings with key safety points so students retain critical information when it matters most.
Intuition Check
Do not read law of recency as a legal rule. Here, law means a learning principle, and recency means how recently something was practiced or reviewed.
Example Sentence 1
Applying the law of recency, the instructor finished the lesson by reviewing the emergency procedures she most wanted the student to retain.
Example Sentence 2
By summarizing the key checklist items last, the CFI used the law of recency to improve the student’s recall on the next flight.