Abstract
This study investigated whether preschool children give a “don't know” response to an unanswerable question, and developmental changes in “don't know” responses. Participants were 4-year olds (n＝27), 5-year olds (n＝31) and 6-year olds (n＝33). On each of three tasks, participants were asked both answerable and unanswerable questions. To elicit more “don't know” responses, a Question Card was used which visually indicated the “don't know” state. Four-year old children correctly indicated a “don't know” response to the unanswerable question, and the “don't know” response was less prevalent in 5-year old children. In addition, there were non-verbal indications of a “don't know” state other than a clear “don't know” response. These results suggest that the point in development when children can correctly say “I don't know” is earlier than previous research had indicated, and that the meaning of the “don't know” response in 4-year old children is not the same as that for 5- and 6-year olds.
