Capacity, strategies, and metamemory: Tests of a three-factor model of memory development Darlene DeMarie * and John Ferron University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Avenue—EDU 162, Tampa, FL 33620-5650, USA Received 4 February 2002; revised 12 December 2002 Abstract Multiple measures of three of the factors (capacity, strategies, and metamemory) hypoth- esized to cause improvements in memory with age were obtained from 179 children in kinder- garten to second grade (younger: ages 5–8) or third and fourth grade (older: ages 8–11) during nine sessions of testing. Confirmatory factor analysis was computed separately for each age group. Results suggested that the fit of the three-factor model was statistically significantly better than a one-factor, general memory model for both age groups. However, the fit indices were borderline, and there was not sufficient evidence for a metamemory factor for younger children. The factors that influence memory performance may differ with age. Ó 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. Keywords: Memory; Metamemory; Strategies; Capacity; Short-term memory; Working memory Research related to memory development flourished following the 1971 landmark symposium organized by John Flavell for the biennial meeting of the Society for Re- search in Child Development (SRCD). The title of that symposium was ‘‘What is memory the development of?’’ For more than 30 years, four answers to the question, strategies, capacity, metamemory, and knowledge, have received the most research attention (see Kail, 1990; Schneider & Pressley, 1997; Siegler, 1998). Despite the volume of memory research, there are two important limitations. First, until the 1990s, studies rarely included more than two of these factors within any single study. Second, researchers from various laboratories investigated memory J. Experimental Child Psychology 84 (2003) 167–193 www.elsevier.com/locate/jecp Journal of Experimental Child Psychology * Corresponding author. Fax: +813-974-5814. E-mail address: demarie@tempest.coedu.usf.edu (D. DeMarie). 0022-0965/03/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0022-0965(03)00004-3