The nature of memory can be explained as a set of stages that are necessary but not sufficient for memory to have taken place. These involve “input” -registering or encoding information, where a memory trace is formed from translating the sensory data, “storage” which is either temporary or permanent and “output” which involves retrieval – memories would be useless unless they could be retrieved. It is these stages that form the fundamental characteristics of the process of memory and in order for this to occur it is necessary for the data to become engaged in the memory structure. Memory structure can be separated into three distinct categories, sensory memory input store where the sensory data remains unchanged in the mind for a brief time but is rapidly lost through decay; short -term memory- which has a relatively limited capacity approximately seven items with rapid decay being prevented through rehearsal and finally long-term memory which is a relatively permanent storage system with an apparent unlimited capacity with information being held in enactive, iconic or symbolic form. The evidence for separate stores comes from empirical studies of duration, capacity, coding differences, serial position effect, brain damage and forgetting.

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