RECEIVING
The senses receive information from the external world and then send neural impulses to the brain. Theses neurons contain an axon (like the head) and a dendrite (like the limbs) which connect to others and form a synapse. Memory is stored through a series of synapses (or connections) between neurons. Basically memory is like a rope. One thread is easily broken, just as information connected through only one synapse is easily forgotten. However, numerous threads connected together (or information connected to numerous memory stores of other information) become stronger. As memories grow in strength through greater connectivity they grow more accessible for transfer (due to more points of access) and more lasting (due to greater connectivity being more difficult to sever). Information that is brought in through sensory perception travels first to a short-term store where visual and auditory stimuli are held very briefly until ready for cognitive processing in short-term working memory (STWM) (Eichenbaum 400). Once sensory perceptions make it to STWM, they need to become converted into "memory traces." However, the “process of converting sensory perceptions into meaningful representations in the brain [encoding] is still not perfectly understood" (Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel 72). Encoding happens as one of working memory's "central executive" jobs and is related to a series of functions occurring during processing.