 Counterfactual reflection is not just used for the “sentimental” purposes discussed above, but as part of what Byrne (2005) calls rational imagination. This capacity is implicated in many philosophical definitions of rational agency. According to the standard model, agency involves intentional action—see entries  agency  and  action.  While choices are intentional actions, intentional actions are a more general class of actions which, on most views, are in part caused by intentions—see entry  intention.  One prominent understanding of intentions is that they are prospective (forward looking) mental states that play a crucial role in planning actions. Byrne (2005, 2016: 138) details psychological evidence showing that counterfactual thinking is central to forming rational intentions. People use counterfactual thinking after particular events to formulate plans that will improve the outcome of their actions in related scenarios. Examples include aviation pilots thinking after a near-accident “if I had understood the controller’s words accurately, I wouldn’t have initiated the inappropriate landing attempt”, and blackjack players thinking “If I’d gotten the 2, I would have beaten the dealer”. People who reason in this way show more persistence and improved performance in related tasks, while those who dwell on how things could have been worse, or do not counterfactually reflect at all, show less persistence and no improvement in performance. Finally, human rationality can become disordered when counterfactual thinking goes astray, e.g., in depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia (Byrne 2016: 140–143).