When Psychologists Ask Research Participants to Remember Combinations of Letters

Multiple Choice

When psychologists ask research participants to remember combinations of letters (such as TJD) , why might they have participants engage in strange tasks such as counting backward by threes?

A) Counting backward prevents rehearsal, so researchers can see how long an unrehearsed memory trace will last.
B) Researchers try to make the participants forget.
C) Counting backward can facilitate episodic binding.
D) Researchers are actually interested in backward-counting ability.