Why does a woman have trouble remembering the license plate number of a car that she just saw 10 minutes ago?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The brain may have never encoded the license plate number in the first place, as encoding requires attention and effort. Additionally, if the woman was not motivated to remember the number or if it was not significant to her, she may have paid even less attention to it, making it less likely to be encoded and retrieved from memory later. Working memory typically lasts longer than a minute or so and license plate numbers are not inherently more difficult to remember than other types of information. Difficulty with retrieval could be a contributing factor, but it is not the most likely explanation in this scenario.

Why Does a Woman Have Trouble Remembering the License Plate