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Rational snacking: Young children’s decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability
Author(s):
Celeste Kidd
,
Holly Palmeri
,
Richard N. Aslin
Publication date
Created:
January 2013
Publication date
(Print):
January 2013
Journal:
Cognition
Publisher:
Elsevier BV
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Abstract
Children are notoriously bad at delaying gratification to achieve later, greater rewards (e.g., Piaget, 1970)-and some are worse at waiting than others. Individual differences in the ability-to-wait have been attributed to self-control, in part because of evidence that long-delayers are more successful in later life (e.g., Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990). Here we provide evidence that, in addition to self-control, children's wait-times are modulated by an implicit, rational decision-making process that considers environmental reliability. We tested children (M=4;6, N=28) using a classic paradigm-the marshmallow task (Mischel, 1974)-in an environment demonstrated to be either unreliable or reliable. Children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer than those in the unreliable condition (p<0.0005), suggesting that children's wait-times reflected reasoned beliefs about whether waiting would ultimately pay off. Thus, wait-times on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks (e.g., the marshmallow task) may not only reflect differences in self-control abilities, but also beliefs about the stability of the world. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Related collections
Thermal Imaging in Social Decision Making
Author and article information
Journal
Title:
Cognition
Abbreviated Title:
Cognition
Publisher:
Elsevier BV
ISSN (Print):
00100277
Publication date Created:
January 2013
Publication date (Print):
January 2013
Volume
: 126
Issue
: 1
Pages
: 109-114
Article
DOI:
10.1016/j.cognition.2012.08.004
PMC ID:
3730121
PubMed ID:
23063236
SO-VID:
21e22546-d06f-4867-b41f-ec04a047b864
Copyright ©
© 2013
License:
https://www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/
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