Question

Fatima's parents requested that she run several errands for them. She quickly rushed out of the house without writing a list of all her tasks. While on her drive, she realized she could only remember the first two tasks and last two. Which of the following does NOT explain Fatima's memory of her errands?

1) Cueing effect where the previous errand acts as a stimulus to remember the following errand.
2) Recency effect where the last couple tasks are in short term memory.
3) She did not experience any major distractions that would occupy her thoughts.
4) Primacy effect where earlier errands had more time to be rehearsed.

Answer 1

Option 3 does NOT explain Fatima's memory of the errands, as cueing effect, recency effect, and primacy effect directly relate to her ability to recall the errands while the presence of distractions is not a direct explanation for this scenario.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking which option does NOT explain why Fatima can only remember the first two tasks and the last two. The correct explanation for the tasks she remembers include the cueing effect, the recency effect, and the primacy effect. These are well-documented cognitive phenomena that explain why we tend to remember things at the beginning and end of a list better than those in the middle. However, the distractions mentioned in option 3, or the lack thereof, is not a direct explanation for the particular memory phenomenon Fatima is experiencing.