Capacity

Abstract

This chapter examines an extremely simple hypothesis about the development of memory—perhaps memory improves with development because children’s “capacity” to remember increases, with capacity at least partially determined by neurological development. We explore the capacity question first because it is important to understand the nature of capacity and its development, since all strategies, metacognition, and world knowledge that is used by the child must operate within the constraints posed by capacity. A second reason for dealing with studies of capacity early in the book is that research on this topic is directly related to the earliest studies that examined memory development, the work on memory span conducted at the turn of the century and reviewed briefly in the last chapter.