In discussing the relationship between cognitive development (perception, pattern recognition, and memory) and reading processes, this paper especially emphasizes developmental factors. After an overview of some issues that bear on how written language is processed, the paper presents a discussion of pattern recognition, including general pattern recognition models, perception of letter strings, and word recognition. This is followed by a discussion of memory, including functions of information storage, a rationale for discreteness of storage mechanisms, and levels of information storage. A section on sensory information storage discusses iconic memory, development and iconic memory, information scanning in iconic memory, and data- and resource-limited processing. A section on precategorical storage includes methodological problems; echoic memory; precategorical acoustic storage; and development, precategorical storage, and reading. The section on short-term memory discusses the general nature of short-term memory, language processing, and development and short-term memory. (TJ)