Counterfactual Reasoning: Sharpening Conceptual Distinctions in Developmental Studies

Rafetseder, Eva; Perner, Josef

doi:10.1111/cdep.12061

Cited by 41 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 45 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…In fact, there is considerable disagreement amongst cognitive developmental psychologists over when children can think counterfactually (Beck & Riggs, 2014;Rafetseder & Perner, 2014). Much of this debate hinges on whether children may be able to answer some types of counterfactual questions without actually engaging in counterfactual thought (Beck, 2016;Rafetseder et al, 2010Rafetseder et al, , 2013.…”

Section: Stage (C): Linear Event-independent Time (4-5 Years)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Temporal Concepts: Learning to Locate Events in Time

McCormack¹,

Hoerl

2017

Timing &Amp; Time Perception

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A new model of the development of temporal concepts is described that assumes that there are substantial changes in how children think about time in the early years. It is argued that there is a shift from understanding time in an event-dependent way to an event-independent understanding of time. Early in development, very young children are unable to think about locations in time independently of the events that occur at those locations. It is only with development that children begin to have a proper grasp of the distinction between past, present, and future, and represent time as linear and unidirectional. The model assumes that although children aged two to three years may categorize events differently depending on whether they lie in the past or the future, they may not be able to understand that whether an event is in the future or in the past is something that changes as time passes and varies with temporal perspective. Around four to five years, children understand how causality operates in time, and can grasp the systematic relations that obtain between different locations in time, which provides the basis for acquiring the conventional clock and calendar system.

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Section: Stage (C): Linear Event-independent Time (4-5 Years)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Temporal Concepts: Learning to Locate Events in Time

McCormack¹,

Hoerl

2017

Timing &Amp; Time Perception

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“…However, it also allowed us to address a further issue regarding the flexibility with which children make spontaneous counterfactual comparisons. One claim in the literature (see Rafetseder & Perner, 2012;Rafetseder & Perner, 2014) is that younger children's emotions in a box-choosing task may be underpinned by just the simple thought that ''I do not have the best prize" (or conversely ''I do not have the worst prize") and thus are best described as frustration rather than regret. This explanation implies that (a) younger children's emotions are not the result of counterfactual thinking and (ii) the comparisons children make between what they obtained and what else was available are inflexible.…”

Section: Single Reference Point Versus Multiple Reference Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Does this mean that we can rule out an explanation of children's emotions in terms of simple frustration rather than regret or relief (see Rafetseder & Perner, 2012;Rafetseder & Perner, 2014)? We are assuming that this question remains open even under circumstances in which participants have full responsibility for the choice that led to the outcome and full feedback has been given (see O'Connor, McCormack, Beck, & Feeney, 2015).…”

Section: Single Reference Point Versus Multiple Reference Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As described in the Introduction, Rafetseder and Perner (2012), Rafetseder and Perner (2014) argued that a between-trial method is the most appropriate one to measure regret, whereas all of the other studies with young children have used only a within-trial method. We directly compared both of these methods in Experiment 1 in the current study to examine whether they showed different developmental patterns.…”

Section: Within-trial Versus Between-trial Comparisons Of Emotion Ratmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has been a recent surge of research interest in the development of counterfactual thinking (for reviews, see Beck & Riggs, 2014;Rafetseder & Perner, 2014). Some of this research has focused on the development of emotions thought to require counterfactual thinking abilities, specifically regret and relief (Burns, Riggs, & Beck, 2012;O'Connor, McCormack, & Feeney, 2012;O'Connor, McCormack, & Feeney, 2014;Rafetseder & Perner, 2012;van Duijvenvoorde, Huizenga, & Jansen, 2014;Weisberg & Beck, 2010;Weisberg & Beck, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The development of regret and relief about the outcomes of risky decisions

McCormack

O’Connor

Beck

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Although a number of studies have examined the developmental emergence of counterfactual emotions of regret and relief, none of these has used tasks that resemble those used with adolescents and adults, which typically involve risky decision making. We examined the development of the counterfactual emotions of regret and relief in two experiments using a task in which children chose between one of two gambles that varied in risk. In regret trials they always received the best prize from that gamble but were then shown that they would have obtained a better prize had they chosen the alternative gamble, whereas in relief trials the other prize was worse. We compared two methods of measuring regret and relief based on children's reported emotion on discovering the outcome of the alternative gamble: one in which children judged whether they now felt the same, happier, or sadder on seeing the other prize and one in which children made emotion ratings on a 7-point scale after the other prize was revealed. On both of these methods, we found that 6- and 7-year-olds' and 8- and 9-year-olds' emotions varied appropriately depending on whether the alternative outcome was better or worse than the prize they had actually obtained, although the former method was more sensitive. Our findings indicate that by at least 6 or 7years children experience the same sorts of counterfactual emotions as adults in risky decision-making tasks, and they also suggest that such emotions are best measured by asking children to make comparative emotion judgments.

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Imagination and social cognition in childhood

Kushnir

2022

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Imagination is a cognitive process used to generate new ideas from old, not just in the service of creativity and fantasy, but also in our ordinary thoughts about alternatives to current reality. In this paper I argue for the central function of imagination in the development of social cognition in infancy and childhood. In section 1 I review a work showing that even in the first year of life, social cognition can be viewed through a nascent ability to imagine the physical possibilities and physical limits on action. In section 2, I discuss how imagination of what should happen is appropriately constrained by what can happen, and how this influences children's moral evaluations. In the final section, I suggest developmental changes in imaginationespecially the ability to imagine improbable eventsmay have implications for social inference, leading children to learn that inner motives can conflict. These examples point to a flexible and domain-general process that operates on knowledge to make social meaning.

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Counterfactual Reasoning: Sharpening Conceptual Distinctions in Developmental Studies

Cited by 41 publications

References 45 publications

The Development of Temporal Concepts: Learning to Locate Events in Time

The Development of Temporal Concepts: Learning to Locate Events in Time

The development of regret and relief about the outcomes of risky decisions

Imagination and social cognition in childhood

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