ABSTRACT
In an important paper, Craik (1986) argued that, due to limitations in processing resources, self-initiated processing at both encoding and retrieval is especially problematic for older adults. Six classes of memory tests were ordered as affording decreasing amounts of environmental support, correspondingly increasing needs for self-initiated activity, and increasing age-related deficits: procedural memory (priming tasks), relearning, recognition, cued recall, free recall, and remembering to remember. The six chapters in this section can be seen as exegeses of the self-initiated processing deficit hypothesis. They constitute unpackings, extensions, and amplifications of this hypothesis. In this commentary, I will begin by summarizing ways, both explicit and implicit, in which chapters in this section elaborate the self-initiated processing hypothesis and will then ruminate on the contribution and current status of this hypothesis.
