The hypothesis that variation in accessibility of categorical knowledge affects its use as an organizational device was tested in this experiment using 36 second graders and 36 fifth graders from a middle-class community within San Diego, California. The students memorized each of two lists of words that differed in category representativeness. They received one of three memory instructions: standard free recall, repetition, or categorical processing. Recall performance was about equal for standard vs. repetition, and both were lower than category processing, especially with the highly representative items. Age did not enter this interaction, so it is concluded that at both age levels, accessibility of categorical information influences children's use of it. This suggests multiple types of possible production deficiencies. It appears possible to distinguish between a production deficiency that can be attributed to an initial disposition of the subject and one that can be attributed to the relative accessibility of relevant information. (PN)