Perception

A number of factors can interfere with a person's perception of the attended information, which can result in a breakdown in information processing. A person's values, previous experiences and ethnic origin, along with the presence of a learning disability, can interfere with information processing. How someone hears the information and sees the information can be interpreted differently than what was intended. If an adult has a visual learning disability, he/she may substitute words or letters and lose the meaning of the written information. This highlights the importance of presenting information in a variety of formats to help reduce the potential breakdown of information.

Working memory

Our short-term memory has a limited capacity to take in large amounts of information and limited time to hold the information. To help improve the learning process, practitioners need to use a number of strategies to help the short-term memory to work effectively. The absolute capacity of short-term memory can be increased by combining bits of information into meaningful units or chunks. This process is called "chunking." Chunking is a major technique for getting and keeping information in short-term memory; it is also a type of elaboration that will help get information into long-term memory. Focusing on meaning also helps with chunking. Understanding the meaning of information to be learned involves understanding how new information relates to other new information or to information already known. This seems to help new information to move into long-term memory.²⁷

Other methods to help information go into the short-term memory and become embedded into long-term memory include: imaging (creating a mental picture), using mnemonics, and rhyming.

Long Term

Once information is moved into the long-term memory it needs to be organized so that it can be effectively retrieved. As previously mentioned, one of the most effective ways is when new information is related to previous experience or knowledge. Many adults with learning disabilities do not automatically do this so they need help to make the connection.