Memory is the retention of learned material 2. Information in sensory register and STM decays if it is not, respectively, attended to or rehearsed. Information stored in LTM, it is believed, is permanently stored. Procedural is where routines or habits are stored. It is where new information inhibits the remembering of older material.
Proactive interference occurs when older material inhibits one's ability to remember newer content.
Even if stored information is not affected by interference, it is not always retrievable. This may be due to how it is organized or that it is stored in one's unconscious. Another theory of forgetting is decay. Decay theory says that information in STM that is NOT rehearsed or transferred to LTM is physically lost after about 30 seconds. When we try to remember the information, our ability to accurately recall the information is dependent on the similarity between the testing condition and the original learning conditions.