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Four-year olds' understanding of pretend and forget: no evidence for propositional reasoning*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Suzanne E. Hidi  and
Angela Hildyard
Suzanne E. Hidi
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Toronto
Angela Hildyard
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Toronto
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Abstract

It is argued in this paper that 4-year-old children do not perform logical operations corresponding to formal logic upon the sentential components of implicative verbs to produce the indirect implications, as was suggested by Macnamara, Baker & Olson (1976). First, it is shown that the indirect implications tested by Macnamara et al. are not the implications which would be derived on the basis of formal reasoning. Second, additional empirical evidence is presented to show that when children hear a story containing a sentence with an implicative verb they do not combine the sentential components of that implicative verb (i.e. the presuppositions and implicative) to arrive at the implication of their conjunction. It is argued that the children draw upon their past personal knowledge concerning the event described in the story and import additional premises where necessary in order to derive the indirect implications.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , October 1979 , pp. 493 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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Footnotes

[*]

Address for correspondence: Dr. A. Hildyard, Research & Development, O.I.S.E., 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Canada M5S IV6.

References

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