Remembering is generally viewed as consisting of three stages:

  1. Acquisition or encoding is learning the material in the first place.
  2. Storage is keeping the material that is needed.
  3. Retrieval is finding the material and getting it back out when it is needed.

To help remember these three stages, we can refer to them as the “Three R’s of Remembering” Recording (acquisition), Retaining (Storage), and Retrieving (retrieval). Another way to remember the three stages of memory is by referring to the “Three F’s of Forgetting” (or more accurately, the three F’s of not forgetting). Corresponding with Recording, Retaining and Retrieving are, respectively, Fixating, Filing, and Finding.

The three stages of memory can be illustrated by comparing the memory to a file cabinet. You first write or type the desired information on a piece of paper (Recording). Then you put it in a file cabinet drawer under the appropriate heading (Retaining). Later you go to the file cabinet, find the information, and get it back out. (Retrieving).

Sometimes when a person cannot locate what he wants in a file cabinet it may be because the information was never recorded; sometimes it may be because the recorded information was never put in the cabinet; but often it is because the information was not put into the cabinet in such a way as to be easy to find. Suppose a person using the file cabinet throws letters and documents haphazardly into the drawers. A few months later he goes to the cabinet to retrieve a specific document. We would likely have a problem getting it. Why? Because it was not recorded? NO! The document had been typed. Because it was not retained? NO! The document had been put in the cabinet. How the document was stored is the problem.

Continued in Part 2