There are three main types of questions that memory asks, corresponding to the needs that arise internally for their answers. The first is goal-instrumental: when a person has a goal and needs some information to help him achieve that goal. Memory asks questions to try to figure out how to go about achieving a goal. The second is intrinsic-interest: people can just want to know something because they are curious about it. The third is in many ways the most important: expectation failure-based explanation questions. We experience an expectation failure and ask ourselves questions in the process of resolving that failure in order to modify memory so that we will understand better next time.
Take me to the outline for the book
