Friday, October 24, 2008

Research news: The Marshmallow Test--Brain scan aims to find out what's behind self-control

The News:
The marshmallow test: Brain scans aim to find out what's behind self-control
By Carey GoldbergThe Boston Globe
Article Last Updated: 10/23/2008 10:53:27 PM MDT
It is a simple test but has surprising power to predict a child's future.
A 4-year-old is left sitting at a table with a marshmallow or other treat on it and given a challenge: Wait to eat it until a grown-up comes back into the room, and you'll get two. If you can't wait that long, you'll get just one.
Some children can wait less than a minute; others last the full 20 minutes.
The longer the child can hold back, the better the outlook in later life for everything from SAT scores to social skills to academic achievement, according to classic work by Columbia University psychologist Walter Mischel, who has followed his test subjects from preschool in the late 1960s into their 40s now.
From church sermons to parenting manuals, "the marshmallow test" has entered popular culture as a potent lesson on the rewards of self-control.
It has also raised deep psychological research questions: What is involved in delaying gratification? Why does it correlate with success in life? Why do people fail at it? Read on...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Psychological Science.

1 comment:

djoy said...

Thank you Elaine. I am reviewing recent research on sexual impulsivity in preparation for my part in a panel discussion on Sex and Sexuality, Monday, Oct. 27 in Tivoli 320 A sponsored by CCD's Psi Beta National Honor Society in Psychology. My part is "Kinks, Costumes and Scary Sex". This article helps support a general understanding of impulsivity.

It is also helpful to me in the context of a family political discussion regarding whether intelligence matters, and if so how, in a candidate for national leadership. The positive correlation between self-control and intelligence, regardless of direction of effect, supports my position that intelligence is one factor that can matter in the performance of specific roles and tasks - though not in establishing our global worth as a human being!