There are two main approaches to coding information: the physiological approach, and the mental approach. The physiological approach looks at how a stimulus is represented by neurons firing in the brain, while the mental approach looks at how the stimulus is represented in the mind.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Parker|first1=Amanda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PSB5AgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1&dq=physiological+and+mental+approaches+to+encoding+memory#v=onepage|title=The Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory: Encoding and Retrieval|last2=Bussey|first2=Timothy J.|last3=Wilding|first3=Edward L.|date=2005-08-18|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-135-43073-3|language=en}}</ref>
There are many types of mental encoding that are used, such as visual, elaborative, organizational, acoustic, and semantic. However, this is not an extensive list
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[[File:Rainbow-diagram-ROYGBIV.svg|thumb|alt= Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet|The mnemonic "Roy G. Biv" can be used to remember the colors of the rainbow]]
When memorizing simple material such as lists of words, mnemonics may be the best strategy, while "material already in long-term store [will be] unaffected".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SVxyXuG73wwC&pg=PA89&dq=%22Simple+material%22+memory+milner+1966#v=onepage|title=Psychology of Learning and Motivation|date=1968|publisher=Academic Press|isbn=978-0-08-086353-5|language=en}}</ref> Mnemonic Strategies are an example of how finding organization within a set of items helps these items to be remembered. In the absence of any apparent organization within a group organization can be imposed with the same memory enhancing results. An example of a mnemonic strategy that imposes organization is the ''[[Mnemonic peg system|peg-word system]]'' which associates the to-be-remembered items with a list of easily remembered items. Another example of a mnemonic device commonly used is the first letter of every word system or [[acronyms]]. When learning the colours in a [[rainbow]] most students learn the first letter of every color and impose their own meaning by associating it with a name such as Roy. G. Biv which stands for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. In this way mnemonic devices not only help the encoding of specific items but also their sequence. For more complex concepts, understanding is the key to remembering. In a study done by Wiseman and Neisser in 1974 they presented participants with a picture (the picture was of a Dalmatian in the style of [[pointillism]] making it difficult to see the image).<ref>Wiseman, S., & Neisser, U. (1974). Perceptual organization as a determinant of visual recognition memory. American Journal of Psychology, 87(4), 675-681.</ref> They found that memory for the picture was better if the participants understood what was depicted.
