Talks
Forthcoming talks
Past talks
Thank goodness: Children's experience of their own relief
Where: British Psychological Society: Developmental Section, Nottingham Dates: 9th September 2009 - 11th September 2009 When: 10th September 2009, 11am - 12pm
LikeDevelopments in children's understanding of regret and relief
Where: University Of Birmingham School of Psychology, Departmental Research Day and Cognitive Development Workshop Dates: 5th May 2009 - 6th May 2009 When: 6th May 2009, 12pm - 1pm
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
Where: SRCD biennial conference, Denver, Colorado Dates: 2nd April 2009 - 4th April 2009 When: 4th April 2009, 12pm - 2pm
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
Where: University Of Birmingham School of Psychology, Cognitive Development Group When: 5th March 2009, 4pm - 5pm
Thank goodness: Children's understanding of their own relief
Where: College of Life and Environmental Sciences Launch Competition (December 2008) and Graduate School Poster Competitions (June 2009) When: 10th December 2008
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
Where: University Of Birmingham Psychology Department, Cognitive Development Group When: 20th October 2008
The development of children's understanding of regret and relief
Where: British Psychological Society: Developmental Section, Oxford Dates: 1st September 2008 - 3rd September 2008
If 7-years-olds feel regret, do they understand that others feel regret?
Where: Graduate School Poster Competetion, University of Birmingham Graduate School When: 10th June 2008
Considered to be in the final judging round of 20 (from 150)
Children's understanding of their own and others' regret and relief
Where: University Of Birmingham Psychology Department, Theory of Mind Workshop Dates: 5th June 2008 - 6th June 2008
Critical Review of 'Commission, omission and dissonance reduction: Coping with regret in the “Monty Hall” problem'
Where: University Of Birmingham Psychology Department, Taught Doctoral Programme: Psychological Issues Module When: 10th January 2008
The emergence and development of the feelings of regret and relief through a counterfactual world
Where: University Of Birmingham Psychology Department, Cognitive Development Group When: 10th December 2007
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