This study investigates developmental trends in free recall, with emphasis on rehearsal processes. An overt rehearsal technique was used in which 28 children in grades 3, 6, and 8 were instructed to rehearse out loud while trying to memorize a list of unrelated nouns. Control groups at each age level received standard free recall instructions, with no mention of rehearsal. Findings were consistent with earlier studies: older children performed better than younger subjects. The major developmental differences occurred over the primacy and middle sections of the serial position curve. Analysis of the data indicates that younger children use more passive rehearsal strategies than older children. They tend to rehearse only the item currently presented, while eighth graders intermix large numbers of items. Discussion is based on this observation, and the implication is that the number of rehearsal contexts may be more important than the number of times an item is rehearsed in long-term memory storage. (DP)