pete and repeat were on a boat...

I've been loosely listening to the NPR reports on the Sotomayor inquisition, I mean interviews. Today I heard a thematic conversation develop over the day, that Sotomayor is being asked a certain pool of questions several times. Not having heard any of the sessions I don't know how closely related the questions are, but it was noted on several of the shows by hosts and commentators.

While in graduate school I often complained about the repetition of questions during class lectures. For example, one person would ask a question (often on something covered in the readings, thus showing they had not read and prepared for the session), the prof would answer. Then the question would be asked again, answered and often a third time. Rarely word for word, but enough that I became extremely disgruntled with professors for entertaining such unpreparedness and lack of attention. Thus, I took as many of my courses, especially general requirements at affiliate schools.

So, why are educated people repeating themselves? Are we living so deeply in a world where it is commonly known that something must be repeated seven times in at least three forms (written, spoken, sung?..I don't really know) that even the highly educated are lacking in basic comprehension skills? Have the scores of reading comprehension tests taken a cliff dive? Do we repeat our questions in hope of a different answer, because we didn't understand the first time, or because we didn't hear (registered sound, but didn't process content)?