“Oh, The Temptation” by Steve V
2 Hidden Cameras – HVX 200 and Sony Z1U
A bunch of Kids
1 Marshmallow each
via BuzzFeed
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Some claim, of course, that the children most able to resist are those who do best in life — they have the best impulse control.
For the interested: This is the ‘delayed gratification task’. Success is in large parts dependent on how well the children can make their mind focus on somthing else. Children who are preoccupied with the reward during the waiting phase and do not divert their attention away from it fail most of the times.
The scary thing is: Performance on this ‘test’ can predict success later in life (measured eg. in GPA and salary) to a very large degree.
Kind regards
Your fellow neuroscientist. :D
If you want to read more about the original marshmallow test and why gratification delayers are “more successful” in life, the New Yorker had an excellent article a few months ago here – http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer
Good lord this is hard to watch. Clearly, I’m not too good at delaying…
The woman says “I’ll give you another one.” This could easily mean that it’s instead of, and not in addition to the one in front of them. This experiment is flawed.
Thumbnail – you don’t get to hear the full explanation given to the kids.
Radiolab had a great podcast about the original version of this experiment: http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2009/03/09/mischel%E2%80%99s-marshmallows/
If this is a test on delayed gratification, then we’re all in serious trouble, as only one kid was able to control himself until the woman came back.