A method for use with a nonvolatile solid state memory that is made up of a plurality of memory cells for storing user data where the memory cells are configured for storing said user data based on a physical property that can be set responsive to a programming operation and for reading the stored data, that is representative of the user data, in a read operation, said method comprising: initially storing the user data in said memory cells; determining a baseline value of a quality metric that is associated with initially storing the user data; establishing a relationship as a difference between a current value of the quality metric and the baseline value for comparison with a threshold value and selectively initiating an error response event responsive to said difference exceeding the threshold value; reading a set of said stored data, that is representative of the user data, in said read operation such that an associated set of retrieved data is obtained by said read operation which retrieved data is influenced by one or more distortion mechanisms as a result of the set of stored data having been stored in and read from the nonvolatile solid state memory; generating the quality metric responsive to the retrieved data which quality metric changes in value responsive to differences between the user data and the associated retrieved data; and monitoring said relationship as being indicative of a degradation of the quality of said retrieved data, and selectively initiating the error response event responsive to said monitoring, wherein said error response event includes adding a correction amount having a correction magnitude to each data value that makes up the associated retrieved data; and increasing said correction magnitude responsive to an increase in the difference between the quality metric and the baseline value. initially storing the user data in said memory cells; determining a baseline value of a quality metric that is associated with initially storing the user data; establishing a relationship as a difference between a current value of the quality metric and the baseline value for comparison with a threshold value and selectively initiating an error response event responsive to said difference exceeding the threshold value; reading a set of said stored data, that is representative of the user data, in said read operation such that an associated set of retrieved data is obtained by said read operation which retrieved data is influenced by one or more distortion mechanisms as a result of the set of stored data having been stored in and read from the nonvolatile solid state memory; generating the quality metric responsive to the retrieved data which quality metric changes in value responsive to differences between the user data and the associated retrieved data; and monitoring said relationship as being indicative of a degradation of the quality of said retrieved data, and selectively initiating the error response event responsive to said monitoring, wherein said error response event includes adding a correction amount having a correction magnitude to each data value that makes up the associated retrieved data; and increasing said correction magnitude responsive to an increase in the difference between the quality metric and the baseline value.