Five subject groups (adults and 11-, 9-, 7-, and 5-year-olds) were given affective reactions by a teacher, such as anger and pity, and asked to infer the teacher's causal attributions regarding why a student failed, such as low ability of lack of effort. There were systematic linkages between the following affect-attribution pairings: anger-effort, pity-ability; guilt-teacher/task; and surprise-effort. The inferences of the adults, 11-, and 9-year-olds were quite similar, and children as young as five years of age provided some evidence that they can infer thoughts from affects. The implications of these affect-attribution linkages for students' self-esteem were considered. (Author/GK)