CHILDRENS BEHAVIORAL UNDERSTANDING OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION

Young children often absorb the information they are taught without be ing aware they are learning something new. In two experiments, we test ed the hypothesis that children are more aware of transitions in their own knowledge that involve changes in behavior than transitions that involve changes in vocabulary or general knowledge. In Experiment 1, 4 - and 5-year-olds were taught a variety of new facts and new behaviors . In Experiment 2, 4-year-olds heard stories under two conditions: In one condition, the emphasis was on behaviors (e.g., how to count in Ja panese), whereas in the other condition, the information was essential ly the same, but the emphasis was on vocabulary (e.g., the meaning of Japanese counting words). Overall children tended to report they had l earned something new when the novel information was behavioral and ten ded to claim prior knowledge of the novel information when it was fact ual. These results are consistent with Perner's (1991) claim that youn g children initially have a behavioral understanding of knowledge acqu isition.