Encoding information is just the first step in declarative processing.   The steps of storing, retrieving, and forgetting complete the process.  For you to learn, your brain must determine which information it should store for later use and which information it should forget.   As it turns out, what you do at the moment of encoding may help determine what is lost and what is stored.  

More complex encoding involves multiple senses and intense emotions at the moment you process memories.   Like landmarks on a highway—complex encoding provides many reference points for storage and retrieval and ensures that the information can be found.   For instance, you are more likely to remember a funny story acted out on a stage with full costumes and props than you are to remember the same story after reading it from an online magazine.   By involving additional senses and emotions, you create more synapses that are associated or linked with that memory.  The idea of complex encoding and increased associations is the basis for many study skills and strategies.