Long Term Memory
Long-term memory (LTM) is the last stage of the Information Processing process. “LTM is everything we know and know how to do” (Orey, 2001). Situated at the end, it is seen to “serve as a highly organized permanent storage system” (Schraw & McCrudden, 2013). In order to move information from working memory into long-term memory, one of three strategies needs to occur, “organization, inferences or elaboration (Mayer & Moreno, 2003). These processes connect new information to existing knowledge and are considered as part of the encoding process. Huit proposes that elaboration can include: “imaging (including a mental picture), method of loci (ideas connected are located in a familiar location), peg word method (number, rhyming scheme), rhyming (songs, phrases), or initial letter (using first letter of each word to create a sentence)” (2003). For information to be stored here in long-term memory it will be "organized using one or more structures: declarative, procedural, and/or imagery” (Huit, 2003). Schraw & McCrudden claim effective long-term memory will act as a "highly organized permanent storage system" and will "be more or less permeant and unlimited in its capacity" (2013). If the knowledge is highly organized it makes the process of retrieval of information in long-term memory much easier.