Counterfactually mediated emotions: A developmental study of regret and relief in a probabilistic gambling task

Knowing when to hold ‘em: regret and the relation between missed opportunities and risk taking in children, adolescents and adults

“…The observed increase in regret responsivity across childhood and adolescence into adulthood is consistent with previous work showing that regret intensity is also greater in adults than in adolescents (Habib et al, 2012). Our results, alongside Habib et al's findings, suggest that regret may have a different status in adolescent decision-making than emotions stemming from information about actual outcomes.…”

“…If adolescent decisionmaking is particularly susceptible to emotional influences, one obvious hypothesis is that regret arising out of information about missed opportunities will have a greater impact on decision-making in adolescents than in children or in adults. The findings regarding adolescents' regret in risky decision-making tasks are contradictory: Burnett, Bault, Coricelli, and Blakemore (2010) found similar levels of reported regret in adolescents as in children or adults (although adolescents reported more intense relief), whereas Habib et al (2012) found that adults reported higher levels of regret than either children or adolescents and Habib et al (2015) found that in competitive contexts, adolescents did not appear to experience regret whereas children and young adults did. Although adolescents do not report feeling more intense regret than children or adults, nevertheless their decisionmaking may be more affected by this emotion, i.e.…”

The development of regret and relief about the outcomes of risky decisions

“…There was no evidence of developmental increases in the intensity of negative emotion in regret trials, and although they did find increases in the intensity of positive emotions in relief trials between young and mid-adolescents, there were no further changes after this age. By contrast, using a similar paradigm but with a within-trial procedure, Habib et al (2012) found evidence of developmental increases in regret, with both 11-year-olds and an adolescent group showing less regret than an adult group. These studies differed in that Burnett et al (2010) index of regret and relief was simply the intensity of reported emotion on complete feedback trials, whereas Habib et al (2012) calculated the difference between emotion ratings involving partial and complete feedback taken within a single trial.…”

“…By contrast, using a similar paradigm but with a within-trial procedure, Habib et al (2012) found evidence of developmental increases in regret, with both 11-year-olds and an adolescent group showing less regret than an adult group. These studies differed in that Burnett et al (2010) index of regret and relief was simply the intensity of reported emotion on complete feedback trials, whereas Habib et al (2012) calculated the difference between emotion ratings involving partial and complete feedback taken within a single trial. Habib et al speculated that the results of the two studies are not consistent because of this difference in the way that regret and relief were measured.…”

“…Each of these different points of reference would yield different (and, crucially from the point of view of observing them, contrasting) emotional responses. Although we know that older children, like adults, can indeed use both of these points of reference (Habib et al, 2012), the design of previous studies with younger children has meant that it is not clear at what age such an ability is present.…”