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This study explores how a group of nine year olds in Korea form historical inferences using pictures of historical paintings. It investigates whether they have the ability to form plausible inferences about the lives of people depicted in these pictures, what they can infer about the lives of people depicted in the pictures using prior knowledge, and how they came to make these inferences. For this study, nine fourth graders were interviewed at the end of the school year. Making inferences about the lives of people depicted in pictures of historical paintings requires keen observation, substantial knowledge, and the ability to construct an interpretation connecting what was observed with what he or she knew. Although participants in this study had never been formally exposed to the history of the Chosun period, most of them demonstrated some or even detailed knowledge of the period which they had acquired from different sources, and combined this with their life experiences to develop their own ideas about the content of the pictures. However, some participants just cited historical knowledge composed primarily of ideas that they had heard rather than ideas that they developed through direct personal engagement with historical inferences. It appears that participants already share some common culture.

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