An elementary school class took a spelling test immediately after learning how to bake a cake. The teacher noticed that many of the students spelled the word "FLOUR" instead of the vocabulary word "FLOWER," illustrating:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The scenario describes the phenomenon of priming, in which exposure to a related word (in this case, "flour") influences a person's retrieval of a different word ("flower") that shares some similar features, such as sounds or spelling. This can occur even when the person knows the correct spelling or meaning of the target word, as it did for the students in this case. The other options are not as relevant to this scenario: memory reconsolidation refers to the updating of long-term memories after new information is learned; transfer-appropriate processing involves matching the encoding and retrieval processing between two tasks, which does not seem to apply here; and retrieval-induced forgetting occurs when competing memories interfere with each other, which is not mentioned in the scenario.

An Elementary School Class Took a Spelling Test Immediately After