Incest survivors who lack conscious memories of their sexual abuse may sometimes be told that they are simply in a stage of "denial" and "repression." This explanation for their lack of abuse memories emphasizes

A) proactive interference.
B) encoding failure.
C) the spacing effect.
D) retrieval failure.

Retrieval Failure

A phenomenon in which the failure to recall a memory is attributed to the inability to access stored information, often temporary.

Proactive Interference

The process by which old memories impede the recollection of fresh memories.

Encoding Failure

The inability to recall specific information because it was not stored properly in the memory in the first place.