YOUNG CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF THE COGNITIVE VERB FORGET

Investigation of children's understanding of the cognitive verb forget has shown that young children do not consider the role of prior knowl edge when using this verb. Thus, someone may be said to have forgotten a fact despite not ever having previously known it. However, forget c an also be used to refer to a failure to recall a prior intention. Thr ee experiments examined the role of prior intention as well as prior k nowledge in the comprehension of forget by 160 young children aged fou r to eight years. The results showed that children initially have two. interpretations of forget: as an unfulfilled desire rather than a fai lure to recall a prior intention, and as a state of not knowing rather than a failure to recall prior knowledge. Explanations for the late c omprehension of forget are discussed in terms of representation of kno wledge and intention, processing capacity and exposure td pragmatic us ages.