Objective   To investigate the properties of the abilities of spontaneous counterfactual thinking (SCFT) and induced counterfactual thinking (ICFT) produced by undergraduate students with depressive symptoms.     Methods   Undergraduates were induced to produce SCFT after recalling a negative event and ICFT after reading a story about a traffic event. Then the undergraduates were demanded to complete the counterfactual inference test (CIT). The amount and rationality of CFT and the scores of CIT were analyzed.     Results   Mild depressive students (MDS) generated a higher amount of SCFT than non-depressive students (NDS)

midrange depressive students and severe depressive students (SVDS)(P0.01)

and SVDS generated the lowest (P0.05). No difference was found in the amount of ICFT generated by all students (P0.05). The rationality of SCFT generated by four groups were significantly different(P0.01). The higher the level of depression was

the lower the rationality of SCFT was. ICFT generated by SVDS were rated as less reasonable than that of NDS(P0.05)

and there was not different on the rationality of ICFT generated by NDS

midrange depressive students and SVDS (P0.05). The scores of CIT of SVDS were significantly less than those of NDS (P0.05).     Conclusion   Depressive students’ ability to generate reasonable SCFT becomes low in a severity-dependent manner. The ability of induced CFT produced by SVDS is significantly lower as compared with that of NDS.