I don't think children think in those terms. They have an idea and they act on it, not even necessarily to be mean or to cause tears. I don't think they necessarily view it in the present as it would be nicer if we keep doing X rather than me doing this idea I just had.
There may be hindsight - that was not a great plan -but not present sight.
It is this sort thing that is how they learn I think. I remember playing with my sibling and then doing something that would cause him to cry (he easily cried) and my mother asking why I did it and I truly did not have an answer or certainly not one that was going to make sense to her. But it was not to make the little weenie cry. In fact, him crying and my mother reacting usually just led to me not playing with sibling and blaming him for the game stopping. We could have kept going if he had not been such a wuss sort of thing.
Puppies do it - they wrestle and play growl and then one gets too rough and the others stop the game = the puppy learns. Children learn cause and effect and so on in somewhat the same ways it seems to me. I worked at a preschool for a couple of years in college and watching the older ones not know stuff and how they established hierarchy and took on rolls was fascinating. I worked with the babies/toddlers so it was a little different. I did not have the patience for the 3-5 yr olds.