As can be seen in Fig. 2, older children gave more generic responses after viewing the fact in pre-tense (M = 0.67) than after hearing the fact in non-generic language (M = 0.30), Mann–Whitney U = 173, z = 2.52, p = .012. In contrast, younger children did not differ in the amount of generic language used between the Pretend (M = 0.70) and Non-Generic Language (M = 0.73) conditions, Mann–Whitney U = 249, z = 0.34, p = .734.