The Psychological Wellbeing of the Deaf Community: A Social Exclusion Perspective

Slightly different to my usual work on the development of regret and relief. This presentation was for a social inclusion module for my part time university course, Advanced Practice Interventions in Mental Health

Do children have a poker face? Children's implicit responses to regret and relief

Choosing to Regret: The effect of choice on children’s early experience of regret and relief

Part of a symposium: The development of counterfactual emotions into adulthood. I am co-chair of the symposium

Symposium Abstract:
When we engage in counterfactual thinking, we compare current reality to an imagined alternative (e.g., If I studied harder, I would have passed my exam). These thoughts can lead to counterfactual emotions, notably regret, relief, disappointment and elation. Our symposium explores the development of these pervasive counterfactual emotions investigating children’s early experiences through to their function and role in adulthood. We explore the relationship of these emotions with executive function, children’s understanding of these emotions and children’s reasoning and control of these emotions.

Although there is a substantial literature on adults’ counterfactual emotions, there is far less research on children’s understanding and experience of these emotions. The papers presented here use two methodologies, a stories task, in which protagonists are expected to experience differing counterfactual emotions (Guttentag & Ferrell, 2004) and a games task, in which children experience these emotions themselves (Amsel & Smalley, 2000). These studies have suggested that, children experience regret at 7 years, with relief developing later. Paper 1 (Weisberg & Beck) proposes that regret in fact develops much earlier and provides the first positive evidence for relief. This paper investigates the effect of self-blame on counterfactual emotions. Paper 2 (Burns, Beck & Riggs) addresses the development of regret in relation to the development of executive control. Paper 3 (Ferrell & Guttentag) investigates children’s understanding of these counterfactual emotions using the stories task and manipulating character comparisons and salience of the counterfactual world. Paper 4 (Rafetseder & Perner) discusses the discrepancy between the onset of counterfactual reasoning (at 3 years) and the feeling of regret (at 6 years). Paper 5 (Zeelenberg) focuses on the counterfactual thinking behind these emotions in adults, providing an assessment of counterfactuals and emotions in adult life.

My Abstract:
Counterfactual thinking (“what might have been”) is a powerful learning mechanism that can trigger regret or relief, a comparison of a current state of affairs to a better or worse imagined possibility. We explored when children experience regret and relief and whether these experiences are affected by whether they were able to experience self-blame (e.g., Bell, 1982).

139 participants (5;11 – 8;10) played a game in which they received a prize of some stickers determined by choosing one of two unseen cards. They rated how happy they were with their prize, before finding out what the alternative prize would have been. They then re-rated themselves. There were three conditions: (1) Choice: participants chose which card they would receive. (2) No Choice-Child: participants’ throw of a die determined which card they received (3) No Choice-Experimenter: the experimenter threw the die. Participants had four trials: regret-win (win 2/3 stars, could have won 8), regret-lose (lose 2/3, could have won 3), relief-win (win 2/3, could have lost 3), relief-lose (lose 2/3, could have lost 8).

There was little evidence of counterfactual emotions in the no choice conditions. However, older children aged 6-8 demonstrated regret and relief when they made a choice, but not when the outcome was determined by the throw of a die. Children, like adults, only experience counterfactual emotions when it is possible to blame their own action.

Thank goodness for that: Children's early experience of regret and relief

Poster is the winner of the poster competition (7 overall winners). There were 2,000 posters on display.

Counterfactual thinking (what might have been) is a powerful learning mechanism that can trigger regret or relief, a comparison of a current state of affairs to a better or worse imagined possibility. These emotions are frequently experienced by adults, often based on the experiences from our childhood. However, research into the development of these emotions is scarce. The minimal literature suggests that children are able to experience regret from 7 years (Guttentag & Ferrell, 2004). There is no positive evidence for relief. The aim of our research is to identify the specific conditions under which children demonstrate regret and relief. Previous developmental research (e.g., German, 1999; Gleicher et al., 1990) suggests that negative outcomes and a substantial potential loss trigger these emotions and we hypothesised that these factors control children’s early experiences of regret and relief.

Our participants were 162 children, aged 4;8 to 7;8, from two elementary schools in Birmingham, UK. Children played a quick game in which they won or lost stars based on a 50:50 card choice. After children picked a card, they were permitted to keep the contents. Children rated their happiness on a 5-point scale and were then shown what they could have received had they chosen the other card. Children then stated if they now felt happier, sadder or the same as before by pointing to one of three arrows added to the 5-point scale. Participants had four trials: regret-win (in which they won 2/3 stars, but could have won 8), regret-lose (lose 2/3, could have won 3), relief-win (won 2/3, could have lost 3) and relief-lose (lose 2/3, could have lost 8). Sleight of hand ensured that children always chose the appropriate cards.

Children’s responses were compared to chance responding to one of the three options (33%) using binomial sign tests. After making Bonferroni corrections for 12 comparisons (p = .004), children aged 4-5 demonstrated a limited experience of regret, p < .010, three years younger than the original research. They did not experience relief after winning, p = .432, or losing, p = .025, in which children consistently chose the incorrect response. The 5- to 7-year-olds demonstrated regret on the regret-win, p = .001, and regret-lose trials, p < .001, and relief on the relief-win trials, p < .001, providing the first positive evidence of children’s ability to think about relief. The 6-7-year-olds approached significance in demonstrating relief on relief-lose trials, p = .010, whereas both the 4-5- and 5-6-year-olds did not experience relief under these circumstances (p = .212).

Four to five-year-olds experience counterfactual-emotions, particularly regret, substantially earlier than previous research suggests. We have also provided the first positive evidence for children’s early experiences of relief, but it seems that experiencing this emotion after a negative outcome is more of a learned response. Parents and teachers alike may attempt to induce comparisons to what could have been, but they must remember that children younger than 7 do not understand that a negative outcome could have been worse.

Choosing to regret: The effect of choice on children's early experience of regret and relief

Counterfactual thinking (what might have been) is a powerful learning mechanism that can trigger regret or relief, a comparison of a current state of affairs to a better or worse imagined possibility. We explored when children experience regret and relief and whether these experiences are affected by whether they were able to experience self-blame (e.g., Bell, 1982).

139 participants (5;11 – 8;10) played a game in which they received a prize of some stickers determined by choosing one of two unseen cards. They rated how happy they were with their prize, before finding out what the alternative prize would have been. They then re-rated themselves. There were three conditions: (1) Choice: participants chose which card they would receive. (2) No Choice-Child: participants’ throw of a die determined which card they received (3) No Choice-Experimenter: the experimenter threw the die. Participants had four trials: regret-win (win 2/3 stars, could have won 8), regret-lose (lose 2/3, could have won 3), relief-win (win 2/3, could have lost 3), relief-lose (lose 2/3, could have lost 8).

There was little evidence of counterfactual emotions in the no choice conditions. However, older children aged 6-8 demonstrated regret and relief when they made a choice, but not when the outcome was determined by the throw of a die. Children, like adults, only experience counterfactual emotions when it is possible to blame their own action.

Choose wisely or you'll regret it: A investigation into choice on children's early experience of regret and relief

Counterfactual thinking (what might have been) is a powerful learning mechanism that can trigger regret or relief, a comparison of a current state of affairs to a better or worse imagined possibility. We explored when children experience regret and relief and whether these experiences are affected by whether they were able to experience self-blame (e.g., Bell, 1982).

139 participants (5;11 – 8;10) played a game in which they received a prize of some stickers determined by choosing one of two unseen cards. They rated how happy they were with their prize, before finding out what the alternative prize would have been. They then re-rated themselves. There were three conditions: (1) Choice: participants chose which card they would receive. (2) No Choice-Child: participants’ throw of a die determined which card they received (3) No Choice-Experimenter: the experimenter threw the die. Participants had four trials: regret-win (win 2/3 stars, could have won 8), regret-lose (lose 2/3, could have won 3), relief-win (win 2/3, could have lost 3), relief-lose (lose 2/3, could have lost 8).

There was little evidence of counterfactual emotions in the no choice conditions. However, older children aged 6-8 demonstrated regret and relief when they made a choice, but not when the outcome was determined by the throw of a die. Children, like adults, only experience counterfactual emotions when it is possible to blame their own action.

Thank goodness: Children's experience of their own relief

Children experience regret before relief despite both emotions relying on the same counterfactual reasoning. We suggest two reasons for this delay in relief trials: (1) what could have been was not substantially different to reality; (2) the events used in previous experiments were positive and may not have prompted counterfactual thinking.

Seventy-one participants (5;2 - 7;10) won or lost gold stars based on a 50:50 card choice. Participants rated their happiness on a 5-point scale, were shown what could have been and re-rated their happiness on initial win trials (win 2/3 stars, could have lost 3) and initial lose trials (lose 2/3 stars, could have lost 8). The first rating was subtracted from the second and the score was compared to zero, indicating a change in emotion.

Children aged 6-7 demonstrated relief on initial win trials, t(37) = 4.339, p < .001. Due to the substantial potential loss (our first hypothesis), we provided the first positive evidence for children’s understanding of relief. On initial lose trials, 5-6-year-olds demonstrated relief, t(27) = 2.519, p = .018, suggesting that negative outcomes trigger counterfactual thinking (our second hypothesis). When the counterfactual is salient, there is no lag between regret and relief.

Developments in children's understanding of regret and relief

Regret seems to develop before relief despite both relying on similar counterfactual reasoning (Weisberg & Beck, submitted). However, a limitation was our inflexible rating scale, which may have prevented some children from demonstrating these emotions. Using a new scale, we aimed to replicate past work.

Children (n = 162, 4;8 - 7;8) won or lost stars after a 50:50 card choice, rated their happiness on a 5-point scale, then were shown what would have been had they chosen differently. A window with three arrows (left-facing (“even sadder than the face in the window”), right-facing arrow (“even happier…”), and upwards-facing (“the same...”)) was placed over their chosen face. Participants chose the arrow describing their new feeling towards their chosen box. There were two counterbalanced trials for regret: initial win+ (win 2/3 stars, could have won 8 stars), initial lose+ (lose 2/3, could have won 3) and two for relief: initial win- (win 2/3, could have lost 3), initial lose- (lose 2/3 stars, could have lost 8).

The 4-5-year-olds had no understanding of regret or relief. The 5-7-year-olds only demonstrated regret and relief under realistic circumstances: initial lose+, z = <.001; initial win-, z = <.001. The new scale was effective, questioning previous results and prompting future work on counterfactual thinking after positive and negative antecedents.

The development of children's understanding and experience of regret and relief

Objectives: Developmental literature discussing regret and relief is scarce comprising only a few papers. Amsel and Smalley (2000) and Guttentag and Ferrell (2004, 2007) found that by age 7, children show regret but not relief.  We set out to compare the two substantially different tasks these authors used and explore whether children’s experience of regret and relief and their understanding of others’ emotions develop in parallel.
Experiment 1 (n = 91, 5;1 to 9;4) To determine the age of development of regret and relief and compare the different tasks used to date, participants completed both tasks, 1) they were read stories about two characters who made decisions that led to negative outcomes. For one the alternative choice would have led to a positive outcome and so s/he should feel regret (Guttentag and Ferrell). They were asked “Who feels worse?” and asked to provide a justification.  2) participants played games in which they chose between two boxes. They rated how happy they were with the contents of their box on a 5 point – smiley face scale before and after they saw the content of the other box. If the unchosen box contained more stickers than they won then a lower second rating would demonstrate regret, if it contained fewer, then a higher second rating would demonstrate relief.
Participants did not demonstrate an understanding of regret in the stories.  Justifications tended to refer only to the current state of affairs.  In the games, regret was evident from 5 years, as seen by the change in participants’ two responses compared to zero (t(23)=-4.051; p<0.001) and relief from 7 (t(22)=5.386; p<0.001), replicating the known asymmetry, but lowering the age of success.
This difference in performance between the stories and game tasks could be because:
1) the stories test question ‘who felt worse?’ underestimated children’s ability. 
2) there may be a distinction between experiencing regret oneself and understanding it in others.
Experiment 2 (n =54, 7;1 to 9;2) We tested the first hypothesis.  Participants either answered the ‘who feels worse?’ question, or rated the story protagonists’ happiness using the 5-point-scale. There was no difference between these measures, p>.999: The wording of the test question cannot explain children’s failure on the task.
Experiment 3 (n = 53; 5;11 to 6;11) We tested the second hypothesis: Half the participants watched ‘Arnold’, a toy penguin, play the game and judged his feelings. The other half played the game themselves. Participants demonstrated regret when they played the game, but did not identify either emotion in the other person (difference between conditions t(51) = -2.769; p = 0.008).
Conclusions: Key findings were the replication of the asymmetry between regret and relief, early evidence for experience of regret and relief, and the lag between understanding regret in oneself and in others. Future research will continue to investigate children’s understanding and experience of these counterfactual emotions.

Scales are controversial: A weighty discussion

Thank goodness: Children's understanding of their own relief

For the College of Life and Environmental Sciences launch, the poster won 3rd place out of 100 entrants.
For the Graduate School poster competition, the poster won 3rd place out of 160 entrants.

Thank goodness: Children's understanding of their own relief

The development of children's understanding of regret and relief

If 7-years-olds feel regret, do they understand that others feel regret?

Considered to be in the final judging round of 20 (from 150)

Children's understanding of their own and others' regret and relief

Critical Review of 'Commission, omission and dissonance reduction: Coping with regret in the “Monty Hall” problem'

The emergence and development of the feelings of regret and relief through a counterfactual world