You Give a Three-Year-Old Child a Large Plastic Canister with Pictures

question 49

Essay

You give a three-year-old child a large plastic canister with pictures of blocks on it.The child shakes the canister and it rattles,but when she opens it,she finds that it contains large beads.What will the child assume about the expectations of the next person who receives the canister? What is this phenomenon called?

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Definitions:

Automatic Processing

The unconscious encoding of incidental or well-learned information without effort.

Effortful Processing

The active and conscious effort to encode or store information in memory.

Iconic Memory

A type of visual sensory memory that holds an exact copy of what is seen for a very brief period of time, usually under a second.

Serial Position Effect

A phenomenon in memory research indicating that people tend to remember the first and last items in a series better than the middle items.