Abstract: This paper reexmined Gilovich and Medvec's temporal pattern to the experienceof regret(1994)which argued, as opposed to what research on counterfactual thinkingshowed, that people's biggest regrets in real life involve more inaction instead ofaction. It was found that the theoretical contradiction arose from the difference betweenGilovich and Medvec's interpretation of action/inaction and the original assumptions.Using a new typology, the author found that like short--term regrets, at least half ofthe long--term regrets stem from changes of state (actions), and proposed consistentmodel of regret on the basis of his support, arguing that like short--term regret, longterm regret obeys the "change of state--status quo" pattern.

Key words: regret, counterfactrual thinking, change of state, status quo