ABSTRACT
In thinking about memory development, we have rarely questioned the essential similarity of the processes studied under the rubrics “problem-solving skills” and “memory strategies” (Brown, 1975a, 1977, in press a). A general class of information-processing models, with their emphasis on routines controlled and regulated by an executive, seems suitable for describing the major psychological processes of interest in both domains. However, because our charge is to function under the memory development heading, we have decided to refocus our thinking from our usual position of regarding the problem-solving and memory people as those who study the same processes on different tasks. Instead, we have begun by looking for any interesting differences between the major emphases and accomplishments in one field that could intelligently aid the development of the other. There do appear to be some psychologically interesting differences, not only in the tasks and skills studied but in the depth of the analyses of those tasks and skills and in the commitment to addressing instructional goals. In the first part of this chapter we highlight some of these differences between the two approaches and try to illustrate a weakness in the current mainstream of memory-development research. In the second part we concentrate on an area of concern to both the problem-solving and memory-development literatures: self-regulation and control, our candidate for the most fundamental difference between the experienced and the naive. In the final section we indicate new problem areas and new ways of considering what it is that develops with age and experience.
