Higher order encoding: Process or state?

While prior data has seemed to suggest that learning occurs as a result of encoding information into higher order memory units, rather than the formation of interitem associations, the process whereby the encoding occurs has been left relatively unspecified. Two encoding models were outlined which differed to the extent that one assumed that encoding occurred as an active process after the specific items of information were registered in memory, while the other assumed that information is initially registered in memory in the encoded state. The results from two studies seem to offer the most support for the second of these two models.