Human memory is considered as information processing behavior. The process of information storage seems to be composed of very active part-processes, consisting mainly of chunking activities and strategies for efficient information selection and organisation (input-strategies). In the process of storing some of the information may become irretrievable. During retention, according to the dominant view point today, information remains unaltered and identical to the way it had been stored initially; it does not decay nor is there spontaneous regularization.
Evocation is considered, again, as an active complex process comparable to thinking. The process of evocation is guided by a 'feeling of knowing' whereas (parts of) the information requested is retrieved with the assistante of outputstrategies. It is argued that forgetting is a more or less lasting state of unevocability resulting from the way the information has been encoded and/ or from interference during storage or evocation proper; it should not be considered a result of partial or total decay.