Preschool children's understanding of the desire and knowledge constraints on intended action

Abstract

In two experiments, 3‐, 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were tested on their ability to distinguish between intended and unintended actions on the basis of the agent's desire (wanting vs. not wanting the outcome) and/or the agent's knowledge state (having vs. not having the relevant knowledge to intend the outcome). Whereas all age groups had little difficulty imputing intention on the basis of desire, only about one‐half of 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds were able to impute intention on the basis of knowledge; mastery of this latter aspect of intention understanding was not in place until after the age of 5 years. Within‐subjects analyses confirmed these findings fully, and also showed that children were able to attribute ignorance and false beliefs on the basis of a lack of perceptual access before they were able to make judgments of intent on the basis of an agent's knowledge state. The relative lag in young children's appreciation of the knowledge constraints on intended actions is discussed in terms of cognitive, linguistic and social factors.