Question

When Ashley visited Central Park, she saw a group of swans in the pond. All of the swans were white except one. When she recounted her visit to Central Park, she described only the black swan. Which feature of memory encoding did Ashley experience?
A. shallow level of processing
B. self-referencing
C. organization
D. distinctiveness

Answer 1

Answer: D. distinctiveness

Distinctiveness in memory encoding refers to the fact that distinctive events are well remembered. The claim is that distinctive events (unusual, uncommon events) attract more attention, which requires additional processing. This processing enhances memory, so that unusual events are usually better remembered than commonplace ones.

Answer 2

She described distinctiveness