Poster #199 - This too Shall Pass…but When? Children’s and Adults’ Beliefs about the Time Course of Mental Experiences

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

From moment to moment, a person’s emotions can fluctuate. One can feel happy thinking about a past joyous event, but immediately feel sad upon realizing that the event has ended. Desires shift as well: A person can want a salad, then decide that she actually wants ice cream. In contrast to emotions and desires, preferences seem relatively stable. Someone who likes chocolate will probably continue to like it for a long time. Do children and adults share these intuitions? Prior research has begun to address whether people believe that emotions, desires, and preferences can change (Atance & Meltzoff, 2006; Belanger et al., 2014; Gilbert et al., 1998; Gilbert et al., 2002; Harris et al., 1985; Kramer et al., 2017; Lagattuta, 2014; Mahy, 2015; Quoidbach et al., 2013), but little work has explored people’s lay theories about exactly how long a mental experience lasts. Moreover, because most studies have examined these types of judgments in isolation (e.g., only studying desires), it remains unknown whether children and adults differentiate mental experiences by their time course.

In Study 1, undergraduates (N=50; N=45 after a priori exclusions) responded to scenarios in which a person was feeling an emotion, wanted something, or liked something (Table 1). Participants rated how long each mental experience would last (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, lifetime or longer). Participants also reasoned about the duration of two fleeting controls (an ice cube, a sunburn) and two stable controls (a rock, eye color).

A 5 (mental experience: emotion, desire, preference, fleeting control, stable control) repeated measures ANOVA on average duration estimates resulted in a main effect for mental experience, F(4, 176)=589.12, p<.001, ηp²=.93 (Figure 1). Adults judged preferences as the most stable and emotions as the most fleeting, with desires falling in the middle (Tukey’s HSD ps<.033). In addition, preferences were expected to last as long as the stable controls and emotions and desires were anticipated to be as short lived as the fleeting controls (Tukey’s HSD ps>.114).

Study 1, provides preliminary evidence that adults have lay theories about the duration of mental experiences. Study 2, in progress, contributes a developmental perspective: Eight- to 10-year-olds and adults (N=100) will respond to a similar measure as Study 1, with an expanded set of trials. We target 8- to 10-year-olds because they have solid knowledge about time labels (Tillman & Barner, 2015); however, their concepts about how prior experiences and mental states impact future thoughts, emotions, and decisions are still developing (Guttentag & Ferrell, 2008; McCormack & Feeney, 2014; Lara et al., 2017; Lagattuta, 2014). Thus, there is reason to suspect that children’s theories about the duration of varying mental experiences may differ from that of adults. These data will add to the literature on theory of mind across the lifespan (Lagattuta et al., 2015). In particular, we will discuss our findings in relation to how children and adults differentiate mental experiences (e.g., what makes a desire distinct from a preference), including implications for decision making, social interactions, and mental health.

Authors

• Hannah J Kramer, University of California, Davis
  Presenting Author

• Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hyowon Gweon, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jamil Zaki, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author