You are surprised by the fact that you cannot remember if Abraham Lincoln's head faces the left or the right on a penny. This is all the more surprising given the fact that you work with money at your job on nearly a daily basis. What would best explain such an inability to recall this information?
A) encoding failure
B) decay theory
C) interference theory
D) distributed practice effect

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Encoding failure is the most likely explanation here. If the information was not properly encoded when first encountered, it will not be easily retrieved from memory later on. It is possible that the individual simply never paid close attention to the direction of Lincoln's head on the penny and therefore did not encode that information in their memory.

You Are Surprised by the Fact That You Cannot Remember