Final answer:
The correct answer is option A) They have poor memory capacity.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to psychologist Daniel Willingham, students forget things not because they have poor memory capacity or because their brains aren't wired for learning, but due to failures in the memory process.
One such failure is encoding failure, which occurs when information never makes it into long-term memory in the first place because of insufficient attention during the encoding process.
A typical example provided is our difficulty in recalling the exact details of a U.S. penny despite having seen it many times; this is due to the failure to encode those specific details. Willingham suggests that effective memory strategies, such as mnemonic devices and rehearsal, can enhance our memory and help mitigating forgetting.
Memory can also decay over time if not used, a process known as storage decay. Interference is another reason for forgetting, where proactive interference affects the recall of new information due to older information and vice versa for retroactive interference.