The Marshmallow Test

In late September 2014, I was watching an episode of the Colbert Report and the host’s interview with psychologist Walter Mischel about his book The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self Control.  Apparently “The Marshmallow Test” was first conducted over 50 years ago in the early 1960’s at Stanford University when Mischel and his graduate students were curious about how young children reacted to choice and rewards.  This study has been referenced over the years in many different contexts, including investment companies working with adults to plan for retirement, and even on Sesame Street where our beloved Cookie Monster deals with temptation in order to join the Cookie Connoisseurs Club.  So what is the marshmallow test and what does it tell us?

Quite simply, the test was set up with pre-school children to see how they would respond to a choice between receiving one reward that they could eat immediately and a larger reward that they would have to wait alone for for fifteen minutes.  Could these kids be patient?  Could they delay their gratification?  The study showed that for the most part they could not.  A minority of the children would eat the marshmallow immediately, but only about a third could delay their gratification long enough to reach the fifteen minutes and get the second marshmallow.

We know that students are impulsive and we hear a lot about this generation that demands instant gratification.  They are said to lack patience and want things now.  But in reality, this is nothing new.  Mischel determined this 50 years ago and the study has been replicated numerous times with different rewards and a variety of modifications.  Mischel has stated that there are some obvious factors that influence the choice kids make, such as respect for authority and the ability to trust.  Age is also a factor in the ability of a child to delay gratification.  What is interesting is some of the correlations that have been drawn from the original and follow up studies.

From an educational perspective, one of the most interesting came about in the late 1980’s and 1990.  Those students who as pre-schoolers were able to delay gratification became teenagers and were described by their parents are more competent, and then those same kids who delayed gratification had higher SAT scores than those who were not able to delay.    So, those who exercised patience and the ability to put off gratification scored higher on the SAT test.  And, brain research done in the past ten years shows differences in the prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum between those with low delay times and those with high delay times.  

 

It does appear that as the old saying goes, patience is a virtue.  Yet it would appear that in this fast food, video game culture we live in, instant rewards and gratification surround our kids.  However, it isn’t something new and the way to deal with it is pretty much the same as it has always been.  Presenting children with “if/then” scenarios and helping them weigh the benefits of waiting is perhaps the most successful.  Good things do come to those who wait, as is evident from the SAT scores, and we need to stress the idea of greater reward.  Even those people who we sometimes categorize as “overnight successes” have generally put in years of work to get where they are today.  Reaping the reward does not happen in the short term very often, and teaching that to our kids is something that will save a considerable amount of negative emotion through the years. 

If you would like to learn more about Walter Mischel and the implications of his research, enjoy this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b3SWsjWzdA