Supporting children's counterfactual thinking with alternative modes of responding

To speculate about counterfactual worlds children need to ignore what they know to be true about the real world Prior studies yielding individual differences data suggested that counterfactual thinking may be related to overcoming prepotent responses In two experiments we manipulated how 3- to 5-year-olds responded to counterfactual conditional and syllogism tasks In Experiment 1 (N = 39) children's performance Improved on both conditional and syllogism tasks when they responded with an arrow rather than pointing with a finger In Experiment 2 (N = 42) 3- and 4-year-olds benefited from both an arrow manipulation and separately the introduction of a delay before responding We suggest that both manipulations help children to overcome an impulsive prepotent response to counterfactual questions arising from a default assumption that information about the past is true (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved