Objective: To examine the forming age, developing situation, and gender differences of children’ s counterfactual thinking. Methods: Two antecedent counterfactual tasks were used to test a sample of 96 children, aged from 3-5 years old. Results: The acting of 3 year-old children on counterfactual thinking was worse than 4 and 5 yearold children, 4 year-old’ s acting was worse than 5 year-old children. Children could generate significantly more upward counterfactuals than downward; significantly more additive counterfactuals than subtractive and substitutional. Conclusion: 3-5 year-old children can form diversified directions and structures of counterfactual thinking. Age is the main effect on the development of children’ s counterfactual thinking.
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