During the lecture Wayne is busy texting on his cell phone, while kind of half paying attention to what the professor is saying. A few minutes after making a point the professor gives an pop quiz on the material. Wayne can’t retrieve the information the prof gave in the lecture and does poorly on the test. A likely factor in Wayne’s not being able to retrieve the information is:

in ray bradbury's short story "a sound of thunder", mr. eckels's fearfulness leads to drastic consequences for the rest of the world.

in the story, mr. eckels, who is a hunter, hires a time travel company to travel to the age of dinosaurs. although he is excited for the hunting expedition at the beginning, when they reach there and mr. eckels sees the tyrannosaurus, he feels frightened. as he is afraid of the tyrannosaurus, he steps off the path although he has been warned not to do it. by stepping off the path, the entire course of the future is affected: mr. eckart alters the future by stepping on a butterfly, which causes a new man to be elected president in the future. in that way, it is mr. eckart's fearfulness what triggers 'the butterfly effect' and what leads to drastic consequences for the rest of the world.