How Your Brain Processes Everything You Learn

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How Your Brain Processes Everything You Learn

Educational Psychology · Chapter 2: Memory, Thinking, and the Learning MindSection 2.1 · lesson 6 of 1009 min · free with a free account

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Earn 3 college credits for Educational PsychologyRecommended for credit by NCCRS · Psychology 120 · self-paced · one payment, lifetime access
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In this lesson

Attention, perception and encoding decide what a lesson leaves behind.

  • Explain the stages of the information processing model
  • Describe how attention filters what reaches working memory
  • Contrast shallow and deep processing at encoding
  • Use elaborative encoding to strengthen retention

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,266 words). Read along, or search it.

Memory, Thinking, and the Learning Mind

How Your Brain Processes Everything You Learn

Think about the last thing you genuinely learned and still remember. Now think about the hundred things you read yesterday and cannot recall. The difference between those two piles is not intelligence. It is what happened at four specific stages inside your head. This section walks through the information processing model. It describes how the brain receives, transforms, stores and retrieves knowledge. We will look at attention, at perception, and at encoding. Attention decides what gets in. Encoding decides what stays. And we will find that most failed lessons fail early, not at the explanation. By the end you should be able to say where a lesson lost a student.

The Model

The Mind as a Processing System

The information processing model was first developed in the nineteen sixties. It has been refined over the decades since. It describes how humans receive, transform, store and retrieve knowledge. The original framing drew an analogy to a computer. The mind operates through distinct stages. Input, encoding, storage, and retrieval. Input is information arriving through the senses. Encoding transforms it into a form that can actually be stored. Storage maintains it. Retrieval brings it back when it is needed. Treat the computer analogy as a scaffold, not as a claim about hardware. Its value is that it makes the stages visible. And once a stage is visible, you can teach to it deliberately.

Sensory Input

A Filter Before Anything Else Happens

Every moment of learning begins with information entering through the senses. The environment bombards us constantly. Light, sound, touch, taste and smell. But almost none of that reaches conscious awareness. The brain acts as a highly selective filter. Only a fraction of incoming stimuli proceeds further into the system. So the useful question is what determines that fraction. Three factors do most of the work. The novelty of the stimulus. How new or unexpected it is. Its emotional significance. Whether it matters to this learner. And the learner's current goals and motivational state. Read those three as a design brief for the opening of a lesson. Novel, significant, and connected to what the student is trying to do.

Attention

The Gatekeeper of the Whole System

Attention is the gatekeeper of the entire information processing system. That word gatekeeper is doing real work, so take it literally. Without focused attention, even highly relevant information may never reach working memory. And what never reaches working memory is never encoded for long-term storage. The content can be perfect. If attention did not open the gate, nothing happened. Selective attention lets learners focus on some stimuli and ignore competing distractions. It is a limited resource, and it is being spent whether or not you direct it. Teachers who understand this design lessons that capture and sustain focus. Varied pacing stops attention from settling into a rhythm and drifting. Relevance gives attention a reason to stay. And multimodal presentation offers more than one route into the same idea.

Perception

Interpretation, Not Recording

Perception is the stage where sensory information becomes meaningful. It is not a passive recording process, and that is the counter-intuitive part. Perception is shaped by prior knowledge, by expectations, and by cultural context. Two students can sit in the same lesson and perceive different lessons. When a student meets a new concept, they never process it in isolation. They attempt to connect it to knowledge structures they already have. That connecting move is what makes learning meaningful rather than rote. So teachers can work with perception instead of against it. Activate prior knowledge before introducing new material, not afterward. And use concrete examples to anchor abstract ideas. Both moves give the new concept something to attach itself to.

Encoding

Depth Decides Durability

Encoding is the transformation of sensory information into a storable form. And the quality of that transformation varies enormously. What varies is the depth at which the information is processed. Shallow processing means surface-level engagement. Simply repeating a word aloud is the classic example. It produces weak memory traces, and it feels like studying. Deep processing means engaging with meaning. Relating a concept to personal experience. Generating your own examples. That produces stronger and more durable memory representations. Craik and Lockhart called this the levels-of-processing framework. The quality of encoding determines the strength of the resulting memory. Notice what is not the variable here. Time spent is not the variable. Depth is.

Elaboration

The Question That Builds Memory

One encoding technique is worth naming on its own. Elaborative encoding connects new information to existing knowledge. It works through meaningful associations, not through repetition. Some students do this spontaneously and never learn its name. You can recognize them by the question they ask. How does this relate to what I already know? That question is elaborative encoding, performed out loud. Teachers can build it into a lesson in three ways. Ask reflective questions that force a connection to prior learning. Use analogies that map the new idea onto a familiar one. And design activities that require applying the concept in a novel context. Novel is the key word. Applying it in the same context is just repetition.

The Sequence

From the World to Long-Term Memory

Let us put the stages in order and walk the whole path once. Sensory input arrives as raw data from the five senses. Capacity is very large here, and it decays within moments. Attention acts as the selective filter, driven by novelty, emotion and goals. Perception interprets what got through, using prior knowledge and cultural context. Encoding transforms the interpretation into a memory trace. This is the stage where depth decides durability. Storage maintains what was encoded, in a memory system. And retrieval runs the whole flow in reverse. Stored information is brought back into conscious use when it is needed. Every one of these stages is a place a lesson can quietly fail.

Six Stages

Naming Each Step Precisely

It is worth being precise about the vocabulary here. Six stages, each with a specific meaning. Sensory input is raw data from the environment, arriving through the five senses. Attention is selective focus on specific stimuli, filtering out irrelevant information. Perception is the interpretation of that data, using prior knowledge and context. Encoding is transforming information into storable memory traces. Storage is maintaining encoded information in the memory systems. And retrieval is accessing stored information when it is needed. These are not synonyms for each other, and the distinctions matter. A student who cannot retrieve is in a different situation from one who never encoded.

Key Idea

Learning Is Not Absorption

Here is the single idea to take from this whole section. Learning is not passive absorption. It is an active, multi-stage process, and every stage can be influenced. Attention, perception and encoding all shape what is ultimately remembered. Watch how one small teaching move exploits that. A high school biology teacher is about to introduce photosynthesis. She does not begin with photosynthesis. She asks students to recall what they already know about plants and sunlight. That question does two jobs at the same time. It primes attention, so the new material gets past the filter. And it facilitates deeper encoding, by supplying something to connect to. Two minutes of recall, doing work that no amount of explaining could do.

Why It Matters

Sequencing Instruction to the Stages

So what does this model actually change about instructional design? It lets a teacher sequence a lesson strategically rather than by habit. Capture first. Secure attention before new concepts are introduced. Not after students are already lost, which is when most teachers notice. Connect second. Support encoding through meaningful, connected activities. Then plan for retrieval, deliberately and later. Storage without access is indistinguishable from forgetting. And here is the diagnostic worth carrying out of this section. Most instructional failures are not failures of explanation. They are failures at an earlier stage. Attention was never engaged, or the encoding was left shallow. Explaining it again, louder, does not fix either of those.

About Educational Psychology at UPI Study

Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) is a self-paced online course of 100 video lessons in 11 chapters, from memory, conditioning and child development to motivation, individual differences, assessment, instruction and educational technology. It carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits.

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Universities that work with NCCRS

Educational Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

Thomas Edison State UniversityThomas Edison State UniversitySigned partnerUniversity of the PeopleUniversity of the PeopleSigned partnerCharter Oak State CollegeCharter Oak State CollegeSigned partnerStrayer UniversityStrayer UniversitySigned partnerColumbia Southern UniversityColumbia Southern UniversitySigned partnerIndiana TechIndiana TechSigned partnerPenn StatePenn StateWorks with NCCRSSouthern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire UniversityWorks with NCCRSSUNYSUNYWorks with NCCRS +many more cooperating universitiesFind my college →

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About How Your Brain Processes Everything You Learn

What are the stages of the information processing model?
The information processing model, developed in the 1960s, describes learning as a series of stages: sensory input, attention, perception, encoding, storage and retrieval. Information arrives through the senses, attention filters it, perception interprets it using prior knowledge, encoding turns it into a memory trace, storage keeps it, and retrieval brings it back. The original framing borrowed an analogy from computers.
Why is attention important for learning?
Attention is the gatekeeper of the information processing system: without it, even relevant information may never reach working memory or be encoded for long-term storage. Selective attention is a limited resource. What gets through depends largely on novelty, emotional significance and the learner's goals, so teachers capture focus with varied pacing, clear relevance and multimodal presentation before introducing new concepts.
What is the difference between shallow and deep processing?
Shallow processing engages only surface features, such as repeating a word aloud, and produces weak memory traces. Deep processing engages meaning, such as relating a concept to personal experience or generating your own examples, and produces stronger, more durable memories. This is Craik and Lockhart's levels-of-processing framework, which holds that the depth of encoding, not time spent, determines memory strength.
What is elaborative encoding?
Elaborative encoding is a memory technique that connects new information to existing knowledge through meaningful associations rather than repetition. Students who do it ask themselves how a new idea relates to what they already know. Teachers can build it in with reflective questions that link to prior learning, analogies that map a new idea onto a familiar one, and tasks that apply a concept in a new context.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Educational Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 100 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
Which universities accept UPI Study credits?
UPI Study has signed partner agreements with universities such as Thomas Edison State University, University of the People and Charter Oak State College, and works with universities such as Penn State, SNHU and SUNY. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities. Use "Find my college" on this page to check yours.
How long does Educational Psychology take?
It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 100 lessons total about 15 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
How are the exams done?
Quizzes and assignments are online in the course. The final exam is taken online with proctoring; a person on the UPI Study team checks assignments, usually within two days.
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Ready for the full course? Earn 3 credits in Educational Psychology.

100 video lessons, a quiz after each one, and the graded work that earns the credit. Recommended for credit by NCCRS.

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