Please see response attached (also presented below) I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

1. Think about the last time you attended a lecture or were in a classroom. Applying the information-processing model, why did some things make it into your short-term memory and some things into your long-term memory?

According to the information-processing model, memory is divided up into several stages:

(1) Sensory memory-

This is the first stage of memory and is of brief duration but has high information capacity. Each of the five senses has a sensory store that briefly retains information selection and processing. During the third of a second that information lasts in sensory store it is mentally scanned and only those characteristics that stand out or are important are retained for further processing.

(2) Short Term Memory (STM) -

This stage of memory can retain information for up to approximately 30 seconds. Long enough to look up a phone number and dial it. Whether or not the information gets passed along to the next level depends on how important it is. If someone is faced with a survival crisis - a fire, a medical emergency, etc. - the brain will give its full attention to that need and any incoming information that is not related to that need will be lost. Likewise, if there are any emotional barriers because of circumstances - loss of a friend, divorce, pending move, etc. - the incoming data will be ignored and is gone for good. That information which does make it through moves to the next stage. (3)

Working memory is a theoretical concept related to STM and it performs the function of processing information for long-term storage. Two important processes that occur here are rehearsal and encoding. To maintain information in working memory it is necessary to rehearse it. To make information more memorable and resistant to fading from long-term memory, encoding the information through pictures, mnemonics or labeling is necessary. (4)

(3) Long-term memory (LTM) -

Long-term memory is the third stage in memory where information is stored, usually in an inactive form, and is available for retrieval on demand. (1)

Now... think about the last time you attended a lecture or were in a classroom. Applying the above information-processing model, why did some things make it into your short-term memory and some things into your long-term memory?
More than likely, the information that you did not pay attention to by rehearsing did not move from STM to LTM. Since, STM can retain information for up to approximately 30 seconds, it is long enough to look up a phone number and dial it. Whether or not the information gets passed along to the next level depends on how important it is. If you were faced with a crisis - afire alarm during lecture - the brain will give its full attention to that need and any incoming information that is not related to that need will be lost. Likewise, as mentioned above, if there are any emotional barriers because of circumstances - thinking about something that happened the night before - the incoming lecture data will be ignored and is gone for good. That information which does make it through moves to the next stage. (3).

Things like those mentioned above were probably occurring at your last lecture. If you paid close attention or rehearsed the lecture information, it was more likely to move to LTM. If not, it stayed in STM and then faded. Can you think of exact events that were occurring at your last lecture and why some information might have stayed in STM (i.e. thinking about something else, emotional over some event) and other information passed into LTM (i.e. paying attention, interested in material, information linked to past experience or previously learned information, etc.).

2. How can knowing this process increase your learning potential?

It explains how you can improve your memory, and thus increase your learning potential. For example, a person can best improve their memory by practicing skills in rehearsing and encoding information. Without these processes it is more difficult for a person to store and retrieve information from long-term memory. It is literally impossible to recall anything unless some form of structure and organisation has been placed on it. To remember well, it is necessary to organize new information largely by relating it to something already known. (1)

3. How would you reduce the likelihood of forgetting important information?

You can use the techniques suggested by the information-processing model - to increase the likelihood that the information moves into long-term memory (e.g., chunking and grouping, mnemonics, review, note taking, rehearsal, association, rhythm and rhyming, to name a few) and can thus be remembered or recalled at a later date.. Click on the following links for more detail on each of these memory techniques:

Active learning
Review
Notetaking
Rehearsal
Association
Chunking and grouping
Mnemonics
Rhythm and rhyming
Remembering written material

Ideally, if learning occurred, information is retrievable from LTM. Cues are used to locate and copy matched information from LTM to Working Memory for conscious review. Available cues, and the quality of those cues, depend on those used when the information was initially stored. Knowing how memories were stored in the past is essential if memory recall is to be effective. Forgetting information, or the inability to locate and retrieve information, may be attributable to the way it was initially sequenced and encoded. Subsequently learned information may interfere with recall of older data and is referred to as retroactive interference. The opposite is called proactive interference. (2)

In order to overcome fading after 30 section in STM, and retain information for longer, information must be periodically repeated, or rehearsed ? either by articulating it out loud, or by mentally simulating such articulation. In this way, the information will re-enter the short-term store and be retained for a further period. The process of consolidation (Transfer of short-term memory to long term memory) is further enhanced by the relationship, if any, of an item of short-term memory to an item in long-term memory (for example, if a sensory short-term event is linked to a trauma already in long-term memory). (5)

FINAL COMMENTS I HOPE THIS HELPS AND TAKE CARE.

References
(1) http://www.usq.edu.au/studentservices/counselling/issues/memory/process.htm
(2) http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/informationprocessingmodel.htm
(3) http://mset.rst2.edu/portfolios/m/murray_k/final/ipm.html
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-term_memory#Relationship_to_working_memory
(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-term_memory#Duration_of_short-term_memory