The title of a song is on the tip of Gerard's tongue,but he cannot recall it until someone mentions the songwriter's name.Gerard's initial inability to recall the title was most likely caused by
A) encoding failure.
B) automatic processing.
C) retrieval failure.
D) repression.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Retrieval failure refers to the inability to recall information that has been previously stored in memory. In this case, Gerard knows the information, but cannot retrieve it until given a cue (the songwriter's name). This suggests that the information was encoded and stored, but currently cannot be accessed. It is not likely due to encoding failure (since the information was stored), automatic processing (which refers to relatively effortless processing of information), or repression (which is a controversial concept in psychology).

The Title of a Song Is on the Tip of Gerard's