Stanford Marshmallow Experiment

Today I had Classes 311 and 301 watch the "Don't Eat the Marshmallow...Yet" video as a wrap-up activity for Unit 2, intending to remind them of another factor for success--self-discipline, the ability to delay gratification. When Class 311 watched the video, I let them see the subtitles; however, finding that the subtitles somewhat distracting, I decided to let Class 301 choose for themselves whether to have the subtitles on. Surprisingly, they chose not to. When the students saw the interesting girl in the Columbia experiment, they roared with laughter. They could see how hard it was for the little girl to resist the temptation.

The following is a brief description of the Stanford marshmallow experiment from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

Stanford marshmallow experiment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Stanford marshmallow experiment was a study on deferred gratification conducted in 1972 by psychologist Walter Mischel of Stanford University. A marshmallow was offered to each child. If the child could resist eating the marshmallow, he was promised two instead of one. The scientists analyzed how long each child resisted the temptation of eating the marshmallow, and whether or not doing so had an effect on their future success. Although the experiment has been repeated many times since, the original study at Stanford has been considered "one of the most successful behavioural experiments....

Stanford experiment

The purpose of the original study was to understand when the control of deferred gratification, the ability to wait to obtain something that one wants, develops in children. The original experiment took place at the Bing Nursery School located at Stanford University, using children the age of four to six as subjects. The children were led into a room, empty of distractions, where a treat of their choice (Oreo cookie, marshmallow, or pretzel stick) was placed on a table, by a chair. The children could eat the marshmallow, the researchers said, but if they waited for fifteen minutes without giving in to the temptation, they would be rewarded with a second marshmallow. Mischel observed as some would "cover their eyes with their hands or turn around so that they can't see the tray, others start kicking the desk, or tug on their pigtails, or stroke the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal", while others would simply eat the marshmallow as soon as the researchers left.

In over 600 children who took part in the experiment, a minority ate the marshmallow immediately. Of those who attempted to delay, one third deferred gratification long enough to get the second marshmallow....

Follow-up studies

It was the results of the follow-up study that would take place many years later that surprised Mischel. Since Mischel's daughters knew and grew up with many of the original test subjects, through casual conversation, Mischel discovered there existed an unexpected correlation between the results of the marshmallow test, and the success of the children many years later. The first follow-up study, in 1988, showed that "preschool children who delayed gratification longer in the self-imposed delay paradigm, were described more than 10 years later by their parents as adolescents who were significantly more competent". A second follow-up study, in 1990, showed that the ability to delay gratification also correlated with higher SAT scores.

A 2011 study of the same participants indicates that the characteristic remains with the person for life…”