The first stage in the memory process, followed by storage and retrieval, involving processes associated with receiving or briefly registering stimuli through one or more of the senses and modifying that information; a decay process or loss of this information (a type of forgetting) occurs rapidly unless the next two stages, storage and retrieval, are activated.
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en·cod·ing (en-kōdґing) the assigning of values to scientific data so that it can be stored as information.Medical dictionary. 2011.