Information is encoded into the brain as it is received through the senses. Many variables affect how the information is perceived and encoded.
Selective attention - the learner generally has the ability to choose what they will pay attention to and what they will ignore.
Automaticity - tasks can be overlearned so that they are habits and attention required is minimal.
Pattern Recognition and Perception - when learners can symbolize concepts and see the pattern of occurance or where it fits into knowledge they currently have.

• template matching is when mental copies or templates of the information are stored in memory and used to process further information.
• prototype matching is when the item stored in memory is not an exact copy but a general prototype.
• feature analysis is when specific features that are distinct to the information are stored in memory.