Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:08:41.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thinking developmentally about counterfactual possibilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2008

Kevin J. Riggs  and
Sarah R. Beck
Kevin J. Riggs
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, London Metropolitan University, London E1 7NT, United Kingdom;
Sarah R. Beck
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom. [email protected]@bham.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Byrne implies that working memory development underpins children's ability to represent counterfactuals as possibilities at 3 to 4 years of age. Recent findings suggest that (1) developments in the ability to consider alternatives to reality in children of this age are underpinned by improvements in inhibitory control, not working memory, and (2) children do not develop an understanding of counterfactuals as possibilities until mid-childhood.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 5-6 , December 2007 , pp. 463
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, S. R., Riggs, K. J. & Gorniak, S. L. (submitted) Are developments in preschoolers' counterfactual thinking driven by developments in executive functions? Child Development.Google Scholar
Beck, S. R., Robinson, E. J., Carroll, D. J. & Apperly, I. A. (2006) Children's thinking about counterfactuals and future hypotheticals as possibilities. Child Development 77(2):413–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrne, R. M. J. (2005) The rational imagination: How people create alternatives to reality. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guttentag, R. E. & Ferrell, J. M. (2004) Reality compared with its alternatives: Age differences in judgments of regret and relief. Developmental Psychology 40(5-6):764–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Riggs, K. J., Peterson, D. M., Robinson, E. J. & Mitchell, P. (1998) Are errors in false belief tasks symptomatic of a broader difficulty with counterfactuality? Cognitive Development 13:73–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar