Natalia was checking her phone for messages during her professor’s boring lecture on memory. Because she wasn't paying attention she doesn't remember that anterograde amnesia refers to people who can remember the past but cannot form new memories. Natalia’s poor memory is best explained in terms of

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In this scenario, Natalia is described as not paying attention during a lecture, which led to a failure to form new memories about the lecture content. The core idea is that the memory problem arises at the encoding stage—information from the experience is not effectively encoded into memory, so it cannot be stored or later retrieved.

Option a: interference. This would involve competing information disrupting memory, either from prior (proactive) or later (retroactive) learning. Since the question emphasizes the act of not paying attention during encoding rather than encountering conflicting information after the fact, interference is not the best explanation here.

Option b: source amnesia. This is a failure to recall where or how a memory was acquired, not a failure to form the memory itself. The scenario concerns forming a new memory from the experience, not misattributing its source, so source amnesia doesn’t fit.

Option c: storage decay. Storage decay refers to memories fading over time if they are not reinforced. While decay can affect long-term retention, the immediate issue described is the initial formation of the memory due to lack of attention, which points to encoding problems rather than gradual forgetting.

Option d: encoding failure. Encoding is the process of converting sensory input into a memory trace. If Natalia wasn’t paying attention, the information wasn’t properly encoded, leading to poor memory for the event. This matches the description of anterograde amnesia-like impairment in forming new memories and explains the observed memory deficit most directly.

PSY 200 (003) Fall 2025 Introduction to Psychology (TR, 1:30pm)

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