Developmental Implications of the Levels of Processing Memory Framework.

The levels of processing framework for understanding memory development has generated little empirical or theoretical work that furthers an understanding of the developmental memory system. Although empirical studies by those testing the levels of processing framework have demonstrated that mnemonic strategies employed by children are the critical component of memory performance, this result is not dependent on a levels of processing formulation. It also does not clarify the three critical issues in understanding the developing memory system: what the particular mechanisms are that might operate in the different rehearsal strategies; the importance of the structures and content of the knowledge base; and apparently involuntary memory processes such as those involved in attention, pattern recognition, and memory inferencing. (TJ)