Researchers William Marmie and Alice Healy (2004) asked participants to study an unfamiliar coin for 15 seconds to 60 seconds. The results showed that participants were better able to remember details of the unfamiliar coin than the familiar U.S. penny. This finding confirmed that one of the most common reasons for forgetting is:
A) retrieval failure.
B) retroactive interference.
C) encoding failure.
D) proactive interference.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The finding that participants were better able to remember details of an unfamiliar coin than a familiar U.S. penny suggests that encoding was the issue rather than retrieval or interference. Therefore, the most likely reason for forgetting is encoding failure or insufficient attention given to the information at the time of encoding.

Researchers William Marmie and Alice Healy (2004) Asked Participants to Study