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Janette was absolutely certain that she knew the name of the fundamentalist religious group that was involved in the standoff with the FBI in Waco, Texas, several years ago, but she could not think of the name of the group. This is an example of:

a) Encoding failure
b) Retrieval failure
c) Storage failure
d) Consolidation failure

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The situation described is an example of retrieval failure, where Janette is certain that she knows the name of a religious group but is unable to recall it at that moment. Retrieval failure can occur due to interference from similar information.

Step-by-step explanation:

The situation described in the question is an example of retrieval failure. Retrieval failure occurs when a person knows that they have a certain memory stored but is unable to retrieve it or recall it at that moment. In this case, Janette is certain that she knows the name of the religious group involved in the Waco standoff, but she is unable to retrieve that information.

The reasons for retrieval failure can vary, but one common explanation is interference. Interference can occur when information that is similar to what we are trying to retrieve interferes with the retrieval process. For example, if Janette had been exposed to other religious groups' names lately, that might interfere with her ability to recall the specific name she is looking for.

It is worth noting that encoding failure, storage failure, and consolidation failure are not applicable in this case. Encoding failure refers to when information is not properly processed or encoded into long-term memory. Storage failure refers to the loss of information from long-term memory over time. Consolidation failure refers to problems with the process of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory. None of these explanations fit the situation described in the question.

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