Someone leaves a phone number on your answering machine.You repeat the number to yourself as you start to dial.Then, your mother asks you a question.You answer her and then turn back to the phone to complete your dialing only to realize that you do not remember the last three digits.This illustrates how short-term memory is affected by

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Displacement is when new information pushes out the old information from our short-term memory. In this scenario, answering your mother's question caused displacement of the last three digits of the phone number from your short-term memory, leading to forgetting. The other options (dishabituation, priming, chunking) do not accurately describe the process of forgetting in this scenario.

Someone Leaves a Phone Number on Your Answering Machine