Early Comprehension of Mental Verbs: Think and Know

JOHNSON, CARL NILs, and MARATSOS, MICHAEL P. Early Comprehension of Mental Verbs: Think and Know. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1743-1747. While it is a notable fact that preschool children use mental verbs which are remarkably abstract and complex in their implications, the developing understanding of such terms is not well understood. The present investigation was concerned with possible early confusion of internal mental states with external facts or events, such as confusing thinking with saying, and with the developing comprehension of different implications of the verbs think and know, namely, that knowing implies knowing a truth whereas thinking can equally be true or false. A story and question task was used in which characters were placed in contrasting states of knowledge and mistaken belief. Results revealed no consistent pattern of confusion of internal and external, and showed that 4-yearolds, but not 3-year-olds, comprehended the different implications of the terms.