levels of processing

n. In information processing paradigms, the idea that that there are an ordered series or layers of analysis and that most information is processed only at the first layers, and at each layer there is a loss or screening out of information so that some information is processed more thoroughly or deeply than other information. The level of processing of any particular piece of information, then, is how many layers of processing it has gone through. Some paradigms assume the first process is an encoding of data which loses or discards most data, the second level is a storage or memory of data which also loses some data, and the third level entails some further specific processing which includes an elaboration of the data through interconnection with existing data stores.