Baker-Ward, Gordon, Ornstein, Lams, and Clubb (1993) showed that recall improves over ages 3-7 for events experienced during a physical examination. We used a joint multinomial model to ask whether the improvement was due to encoding, to retrieval, or to likelihood to report. The model fit the Baker-Ward et al. data well and showed that (1) retrieval and reporting cannot be distinguished and (2) the observed effects were due primarily to age-related improvement in retrieval reporting rather than in encoding.Research on young children's abilities to remember the details of salient, personally experienced events is important for at least two reasons: (1) it contributes to our understanding of the development of autobiographical memory, and (2) it aids in establishing methods for assessing the validity of children's reports about sexual and other forms of abuse. It is in this spirit that Ornstein and his colleagues (e.g., Baker-Ward, Gordon, Ornstein, Lams, & Clubb, 1993; Ornstein, Gordon, Baker-Ward, & Merritt, in press; Ornstein, Gordon, & Lams, 1992) have been exploring young children'smemories ofvarious types of medical experiences.In one such study, Baker-Ward et al. (1993) examined the abilities of 3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds to remember the details of a regularly scheduled physical examination by a pediatrician and nurse. Memory overall was good, although there were age differences in both initial and delayed recall. The younger children provided less information than did the older subjects and relied more strongly on specific probes. Moreover, the 7-year-olds demonstrated little, and the 3-year-olds considerable, forgetting over the course of a 6-week delay interval.What factors might underlie this pattern of findings? Developmental studies of deliberate memorization suggest age-related improvement in strategies for both encoding and retrieval. For example, Ornstein and Naus (1978) have demonstrated that older children have superior rehearsal and organizational skills than younger chil-