Manny was talking to his friend as he was walking out the door. A few minutes later, Manny asked his friend about the conversation they had few minutes earlier while walking out the door. Because his friend was not paying attention to him, he could not recall what Manny had said. Manny's friend experienced

• A. proactive interference.
• B. premature recall.
• C. memory trace.
• D. encoding failure.

Answer: (D)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand the concept of 'encoding failure': Encoding failure occurs when information does not get stored in long-term memory because it was never properly encoded in the first place.
2. Identify the scenario: Manny's friend was not paying attention during the conversation, which means the information was not processed deeply enough to be encoded into memory.
3. Differentiate from other concepts: Proactive interference involves old information interfering with new information, which is not applicable here. Premature recall and memory trace are also not relevant to the scenario.
4. Relate the scenario to encoding failure: Since Manny's friend was not attentive, the conversation was not encoded into his memory, leading to an inability to recall it later.
5. Conclude that the inability to recall the conversation is due to encoding failure, as the information was never properly stored in memory.