ABSTRACT
In this chapter I review the concepts of encoding specificity and levels of processing and discuss the relation between them. The main point of the chapter is that these two sets of ideas are converging on a common fundamental orientation toward phenomena of episodic memory. In this orientation, recollection of an event is a joint function of information stored in memory about the event (the trace) and the information available to the rememberer at the time of attempted retrieval (the cue). Whether or not recollection succeeds depends on the compatibility of the two kinds of information. The major challenge to memory theory lies in the description and understanding of the relation between trace information and retrieval information that underlies remembering of events. Factors such as depth of encoding and distinctiveness or elaboration of memory traces are a part of such description and play a partial role in the attempts to gain such understanding; they need not be considered separately from, or in addition to, the compatibility relation between the trace and the cue.
