Examination of the memory and executive scores of the CPAL indicated that the memory and executive components of associate learning were affected differently by memory load under conditions where pattern-location associations exceed working memory capacity. That memory and executive functions are necessary for associate learning is consistent with data from an extensive neuropsychological literature in both adults and children that shows performance on paired associate learning tasks to be impaired following focal disruption to frontal or medial temporal structures. For example, in adults with lesions of the frontal lobes and Parkinso’s disease, as well as in children with ADHD, impaired performance has been interpreted to reflect difficulties in learning to select the appropriate response to a given stimulus from a set of stimuli and strategic processing. The results from this study showed that the efficiency of memory decreased under increasing memory load for memory errors and that the rate of decrease did not differ between the different age groups, though there were group differences in memory performance across all versions of the CPAL. Conversely, analysis of executive errors indicated that younger children had greater difficulty than older children in their ability to use executive functions to optimize performance on the CPAL as memory load increased. The AG-013736 nature of the errors contributing to the executive score indicate that working memory capacity continues to play a role in associate learning even after the number of pattern-location associations has exceeded capacity. The integration of working memory capacity and associate memory is consistent with Baddeley’s influential multicomponent framework of working memory. For Baddeley and colleagues, working memory refers to the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information in order to perform complex cognitive functions and is subserved by a set of interacting cognitive processes. The framework consists of two subsidiary systems: a verbal store and a visuospatial store, an attentional control system, and a multidimensional buffer that integrates different sources of information from both within and outside of working memory . In the process of searching for each of the patterns in the set, children need to retain in working memory the previous locations they searched during that trial while also attempting to recall the location for the pattern they are seeking from previous trials. As a result of this interaction between the episodic buffer and associate memory, improvement in performance on measures of associate learning as children age is also influenced by development of working memory capacity. Taken together, these data suggest that as children age they are better able to employ strategy use and working memory to handle increasing memory loads. Conversely, the absence of an interaction between age group and memory load for memory errors suggest that memory processes do not change as a consequence of increasing memory load in older children versus younger children.