Processing Structures
A term that seems to express this function well is processing structure. Processing structures can be seen as capacities that recognize material appropriate to their nature, provide a shift from the current information to the next information set, “pick up” the next, appropriate, content and strengthen it, and in many (or perhaps all) cases provide information. For instance, in a well-learned list if two words appear together, perhaps APPLE HAT, the processing structure will provide movement from the item APPLE, just reported, to the item HAT; will strengthen the capacity to recall HAT (above what would have been the case had this temporal or positional or order structure not been in play); and in some cases provide the information to the learner that the item following APPLE was indeed HAT.
Processing structures are clearly selective. Two entities must be similar for a similarity link (similarity processing structure) to come into play. And encountered material must have the property of “elements occurring one after the other” for the structure that provides order recall to be mobilized. How the memory function identifies the appropriate information remains unclear. In some cases, such as similarity, the process may be hardwired. But the property of “elements one after the other” seems to imply a more flexible or cognitive-type function.
The present view of memory implies that intricate cognitive processes occur to establish and retain information in LTM, all of which operate at a nonconscious level. Under the present formulation, conscious awareness and consciously generated strategies play a relatively small role.