COUNTERFACTUAL PROCESSING - TEST OF AN HIERARCHICAL CORRESPONDENCE MODEL

Bouts, Spears and van der Pligt (1992) recently proposed an hierarchic al correspondence model of counterfactual processing. They argue that counterfactual processing is governed by the correspondence between ev ents and outcomes along three dimensions: the causal relationship of e vents and outcomes, their evaluative tone and their normality. Causal relationship, valence and normality of events and outcomes were varied in a factorial design within two story contexts. As in previous studi es, subjects' mental simulations are found to be guided by the causal relationships and by correspondence in terms of normality. rn contrast to Bouts et al. the data indicate that the evaluative tone does not h ave a strong impact. The findings are discussed in relation to the sto ry used by Bouts et al. and in relation to the hierarchical correspond ence model.