2-113 - On the Interplay Between Counterfactual Thinking and Decision-making in Childhood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Counterfactual thinking (thinking about “what might have been”) is a powerful learning tool. Counterfactual emotions such as regret and relief serve a functional role by highlighting missed opportunities so that better decisions are made in future (Epstude & Roese, 2008). Despite its obvious importance, the relationship between counterfactual thinking and decision-making in childhood has only recently begun to be explored. The three papers in this symposium elucidate this relationship. The first presents a novel approach by exploring young children’s counterfactual thinking in the context of their spontaneous decision-making. Children between 4 and 5 years considered the value of foregone alternatives when deciding whether to revise their choices. The second paper shows that children’s experience of counterfactual emotions contributes to their impulse control. Children between 6 and 7 years who felt regret after choosing a short wait for a small reward (rather than a long wait for a big reward), waited longer when presented with the same choice again than children who felt no regret. The third paper demonstrates that children’s experience of regret is dependent on their sense of agency. By age 7, children who are responsible for a given outcome express more negative emotion when learning that a foregone alternative was better than children who are not responsible for the outcome. Together, these studies reveal a bidirectional influence between counterfactual ideas and emotions and decision-making in early and middle childhood. The discussion will focus on the implications of these findings for theories of learning and decision-making.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Lily FitzGibbon, University of Southern California

Discussant

• Sarah R Beck, University of Birmingham

Individual Presentations

• Do Preschoolers Reason Counterfactually When Revising Past Choices? - Presenting Author: Henrike Moll, University of Southern California; Corey Pettit, University of Southern California; Aleksandra Litvinova, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Morteza Dehghani, University of Southern California; Jungwon Min, University of Southern California

• Does the Experience of Regret Help Children Learn to Delay Gratification? - Teresa McCormack, Queen's University Belfast; Eimear O'Connor, Queen's University Belfast; Sarah R Beck, University of Birmingham; Presenting Author: Aidan Feeney, Queen's University Belfast

• The Role of Agency in the Development of Counterfactual Emotions - Rossella Guerini, University of Roma Tre; Presenting Author: Giorgio Coricelli, University of Southern California