The Marshmallow Test Gets More Complicated
The Marshmallow Test Gets More Complicated
When I wrote about the marshmallow test several years ago, it seemed so simple:
A child was given a marshmallow and told he could either ring a bell to summon the researcher and get to eat the marshmallow right away or wait a few minutes until the researcher returned, at which time the child would be given two marshmallows. It’s a simple test of self control, but only about a third of kids that age will wait for the second marshmallow. What’s more interesting, though, is that success on that test correlates pretty well with success later in life. The children who can’t wait grow up to have lower S.A.T. scores, higher body mass indexes, problems with drugs and trouble paying attention.
The initial finding hasn’t been overturned, but a new study in the journal Cognition is adding a layer of complexity to the test with the finding that whether the child perceives the researcher as trustworthy matters.
“Our results definitely temper the popular perception that marshmallow-like tasks are very powerful diagnostics for self-control capacity,” Celeste Kidd, a doctoral candidate in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester and the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
Kidd and her colleagues started their experiment by adding a step before giving their group of 28 three- to five-year-old children the marshmallow test: Similar to the marshmallow test, the children were given an art task, with a researching placing before a child either a well-worn set of crayons or a small sticker. The children were promised a better art supply (new crayons or better stickers) if they waited for the researcher to come back. With half of the children, though, the researcher didn’t follow up on that promise, telling the kid that better supplies were unavailable.
And then the researcher administered the marshmallow test.