This experiment examined single‐process and dual‐process accounts of the development of visual recognition memory. The participants, 6–7‐year‐olds, 9–10‐year‐olds and adults, were presented with a list of pictures which they encoded under shallow or deep conditions. They then made recognition and confidence judgments about a list containing old and new items. We replicated the main trends reported by Ghetti and Angelini () in that recognition hit rates increased from 6 to 9 years of age, with larger age changes following deep than shallow encoding. Formal versions of the dual‐process high threshold signal detection model and several single‐process models (equal variance signal detection, unequal variance signal detection, mixture signal detection) were fit to the developmental data. The unequal variance and mixture signal detection models gave a better account of the data than either of the other models. A state‐trace analysis found evidence for only one underlying memory process across the age range tested. These results suggest that single‐process memory models based on memory strength are a viable alternative to dual‐process models for explaining memory development. This experiment examined single‐process and dual‐process accounts of the development of visual recognition memory in 6–7‐year‐olds, 9–10‐year‐olds and adults (N=  96). Formal versions of a dual‐process model and several single‐process models (equal variance signal detection, unequal variance signal detection, mixture signal detection) were fit to the developmental data. The unequal variance and mixture signal detection models provided the best fit to recognition data in each age group. Moreover, a state‐trace analysis of recognition responding found evidence for only one underlying memory process. These results suggest that single‐process memory models based on memory strength are a viable alternative to dual‐process models for explaining memory development.