ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, researchers interested in memory development have pursued with exceptional vigor a variety of issues related to real world memory fo r personally experienced events. This kind of memory would appear to have high face validity; indeed, remembering the significant and daily events of ones life is exactly what many nonscientists think of as 'remembering” (e.g., Stewart, 2004). Consistent with this, the study of memory development has always included some concern with how people recall and talk about the events of their lives (e.g., Stern & Stern, 1909/1999; Dudycha & Dudycha, 1933). Nonetheless, much of the contemporary history of research on memory develop ment reflects a preoccupation with processes outside the domain of personal event memory. The large developmental literature focusing on topics such as strategy development, transfer, meta-memorial processes, recognition memory and laboratory-based episodic tasks is illustrative. Such work has led to rich insights about the ways that memory processes in general change across the course of child hood, but has been only tangentially relevant to autobiographical memory.
