Demetra's husband is watching a football game on television. When Demetraasks if he will pick up their daughter, Zoe, from day care the next day, he doesn't reply. When Demetra asks, "Did you hear me?" her husband replies, "Yes, Iheard you. I'll pick up Zoe tomorrow." However, the next day, her husband comes home without Zoe. He claims to have no memory of being asked to pick her up. The fact that he did not have the information about picking up Zoe from day care in was most likely due to his a. short-term; never having that information in sensory memory b. short-term; not paying attention to the request c. long-term; never having that information in sensory memory d. long-term; not paying attention to the request

Step by step solution

01

Identify the role of sensory memory

In this situation, sensory memory would have been responsible for initially registering the information from Demetra, such as the sound of her voice and the words she spoke. It lasts for a very short period of time but is the very first stage in the process of storing information.

02

Analyze the role of attention

In this context, attention is the process of focusing mental resources on the incoming information. If the husband was not paying attention to Demetra's request, the information might not have been processed further and wouldn't have been stored in either short-term or long-term memory.

03

Understand the difference between short-term and long-term memory

Short-term memory (STM) is a temporary storage system that holds information for brief periods of time. The capacity of STM is limited and sensitive to interference. Long-term memory (LTM), on the other hand, stores information for extended periods and has a larger capacity.

04

Determine the most likely cause of the incident

Considering that the husband was preoccupied by watching the football game, it is very likely that he was not paying enough attention to Demetra's request to pick up Zoe the next day. Therefore, the information might not have been processed and stored properly in either STM or LTM. This suggests that the husband's failure to remember the task was most likely due to not paying attention to the request, rather than never having the information in sensory memory.

05

Choose the most appropriate answer

Based on the analysis, we can conclude that the most accurate answer is: b. short-term; not paying attention to the request

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