“The game would have been better for me if…”
Children’s counterfactual thinking about their own performance in a game
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21689158 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marta Stragà (0000-0003-2807-0628, University of Trieste, corresponding author), Angela Faiella (0000-0003-2260-0966, University of Trieste), Ingrid Santini (University of Trieste), Donatella Ferrante (0000-0002-4304-5087, University of Trieste) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 663-697 |
| Publication date | 2023-10-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Thinking & Reasoning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1354-6783 • E-ISSN: 1464-0708 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13546783.2022.2130428 |
| OpenAlex | W4304943211 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 56 |
In two studies, we investigated for the first time the content of children’s counterfactual thoughts about their own experiences. Results showed that the majority of children aged 8-13 were able to produce valid counterfactuals regarding an event that happened to them, despite not achieving an adult-level ability. Comparing counterfactual and prefactual thinking, in Study 1 we found that children showed the same temporal asymmetry previously found in adults: They focused on the controllable features of their experience more in prefactual than counterfactual thinking. However, in Study 2, comparing counterfactuals produced by children and adults after a task in which making errors became salient, children produced more controllable counterfactuals (modifying their own errors) than adults, who still focused on uncontrollable features (as in Study 1). These results suggest that the ability to reason counterfactually in complex and real-life situations is not yet fully developed at age 8-13 years, affecting counterfactual content
Cognitive psychology · Counterfactual conditional · Counterfactual thinking · Developmental psychology · Salient · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Child and Animal Learning Development · Computer Science · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
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| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |