本研究旨在探討以中文為母語之兒童對承諾的理解，並驗證不同操縱變因（如：被承諾者的社會地位、承諾的結果、承諾者的誠意、承諾的明確性）對兒童承諾概念的影響。研究方法包含在不同情境下的承諾判斷及承諾表達兩種實驗題型。研究對象分為五組，每組二十人，由平均年齡為六歲至九歲的兒童與成人共一百位所組成。
研究發現如下：承諾判斷結果顯示，較年長的受試者與控制組皆認為對長輩做的承諾才算數，而較年幼的受試者對承諾的判斷則不會受到被承諾者不同社會地位的影響。兒童受承諾結果的影響較深，與成人達顯著差異，相較於未實踐的諾言，兒童較認可確實完成的承諾，顯示出在兒童的承諾概念中，承諾的結果與承諾本身是密不可分的。然而，所有受試者對承諾的判斷並未受到承諾者誠意的影響，顯示無誠意的承諾仍被認為是一個承諾。此外，所有組別的受試者均較容易認可清楚表達出內容的承諾。
在承諾表達結果中發現，以中文為母語的兒童於六歲左右便可做出承諾。在策略上，受試者傾向做出內容清楚呈現的承諾。較年長的兒童在表達明確性上較接近成人。施為動詞（performative verb）「答應」在整體的使用上並不明顯，顯然不構成承諾的形成要素。

The present study aims to investigate the pragmatic development of Chinese-speaking children‘s understanding of the speech act of promising by examining four factors which affect their promise judgments and production of promises: the promisee‘s social status, the outcome of the promise, the promiser‘s sincerity, and the explicitness of making the promise. Two comprehension tasks and one production task were conducted using a total of one hundred subjects. The subjects were divided into five groups of twenty: four experimental groups (consisting of children aged 6 to 9) and one control group (adults).
With regard to the comprehension tasks, the study found that the older subjects and the control group were more likely to recognize a promise made to a promisee of superior social status as an actual promise than a promise made to a promisee of inferior social status. On the other hand, the younger subjects did not exhibit sensitivity to the social status of the promisee. In addition, the younger subjects were more greatly affected by the outcome of a promise than the other groups, and it was also found that they had a greater difficulty distinguishing words from deeds; that is to say, younger children could not distinguish a promise as it exists as a speech act from the actual action associated with the promise. However, in terms of what role sincerity plays in the judging of promises, it was discovered that a promiser‘s sincerity had no effect whatsoever on the promise judgment of any of the participants. This indicates that an insincere promise was still considered to be a promise by all groups. Furthermore, a promise made explicitly with a clear statement of a future act was more likely to be considered as an effective promise by all participants.
Finally, the results of the production task revealed that Chinese-speaking children are readily capable of making a commitment by the age of six. The promising strategy most frequently adopted among all groups was to state the future act explicitly. The younger children participating in the study showed greater difficulty in making a promise as explicitly as the older children and adults. In all of the groups, the performative verb daying ‗promise‘ was rarely found in our data. This definitively proves that daying ‗promise‘ does not constitute a significant element of the speech act of promising.

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