consider an example that illustrates this problem. suppose you were asked a question on a test, such as "in what city is the world's tallest building located?" you remember having studied this but right now you are unable to answer the question. you say,"i forget."But dose your inability to answer mean that the information is not in memory, or that you just can't retrieve it? this distinction is important if we are to understand human memory. we must know which is the case in this forgetting situation if we are to understand memory function. to get at the meaning of "i forget" in this case, the same question could be presented in a multiple-choice format. suppose that you are now able to select the correct answer. this would indicate that the information needed to answer the question was in fact in memory.however, you needed something to help you locate that information. seeing the correct answer among several alternatives enabled you to remember the answer to the question.