With counterfactuals in high functioning autistic children:
BOTH additive (What if I had done a new thing) and
subtractive (What if I did not do the thing)
counterfactuals work fine BUT differently. Autistic children tend to INCREASE subtractive counterfactuals (What if I did not do the thing) more than neurotypical children along with additive, but neurotypical increased their additive counterfactuals (What if I had done a new thing?) more and did not increase their subtractive at all.
So: autistic: more subtractive “what if I had not” and additive “what if I had”
Neurotypical more additive “What if I had”, same subtractivce “what if I had not”.
Sounds like increasing “what if I hadn’t done the thing” regret among high functioning autistic children and same “what if I hadn’t” regret levels among neurotypical children, at least from 6-12.
Needs longitude studies but it’s good to see that usage is _similar_ even if directions are different.
OH! Subtractive counterfactuals are NOT generative because they are closed-world but additive counterfactuals are open-world and ARE generative because they include things from another universe.
Both still use additive more. But it’s interesting how subtractive seems to stay the mostly the same in neurotypicals but increases in usage from 6-12 among high functioning autistic children.