Final answer:
Maintenance rehearsal is the act of repeating information to prevent it from fading from short-term memory, whereas elaborative rehearsal involves making connections with existing knowledge to transfer information into long-term memory.
Step-by-step explanation:
Repeating information over and over so that it does not fade from short-term memory is called maintenance rehearsal. This type of rehearsal involves the simple, rote repetition of information to keep it active within your short-term memory. For instance, repeatedly saying a phone number to oneself until it can be written down is a form of maintenance rehearsal.
This contrasts with elaborative rehearsal, which involves linking new information to existing knowledge to facilitate its transfer to long-term memory. An example of elaborative rehearsal would be associating a new acquaintance's name with a friend who has the same name to help remember it.
Both maintenance and elaborative rehearsal are strategies to enhance memory that are part of the broader concept of encoding, or the process of getting information into our memory system. While maintenance rehearsal can help retain information in the short term, elaborative rehearsal is more effective for long-term retention since it requires deeper cognitive processing.
This is supported by the levels of processing theory proposed by Craik and Lockhart, which suggests that the deeper the level of processing, the better the information is remembered. Furthermore, techniques like the self-reference effect and distributed practice can also aid in committing information to long-term memory by making it personally meaningful and allowing time for memory consolidation, respectively.