Development of Associative Memory Project (REB 23-057 Brock University) Abstract Associative memory (memory for how units of information are related) improves during childhood. However, tasks designed to measure associative memory also place demands on the attentional system. This makes it difficult to dissociate age-related improvements in memory from the development of attentional control. One way of reducing task demands is to test associative memory indirectly (or implicitly) rather than directly (explicitly). In the current study, 96 children (8-, 10-, and 12-years-old) completed separate implicit and explicit associative memory tests. For the implicit task, children incidentally encoded pairs by making an object categorization decision about pictures of everyday objects. Then, at test they completed the same task again, but unbeknownst to the participants, the pairs were either intact, rearranged, or new. Children then completed another incidental encoding phase, followed by an explicit test in which they had to indicate whether the pairs were intact, rearranged, or new. For the implicit test, children in all age groups had faster reaction times for intact than rearranged, and rearranged than new pairs (indicative of implicit associative memory), and there was no interaction with age. In the explicit test, memory performance (d’) improved with age. Exploratory analyses showed that attentional control related to explicit memory, and the extent to which children slowed to rearranged pairs in the implicit task (indicative of worse resistance to interference). Together, these results support that attentional mechanisms are responsible for age-related improvement in associative memory.