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The marshmallow experiment
Submitted by augustin on Sat, 2009-10-10 23:07
Community topics:
Let's start with some humorous moments with a marshmallow experiment:
Add to it a news report on the said experiment:
Then help yourself with some scientific background information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deferred_gratification
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Comments
How entertaining!
We just stumbled upon this recently.
I wanted to write the man who recently challenged this marshmallow wisdom. His point of view is that kids should be encouraged to pursue their passions so they learn to become goal directed and driven. But he didn't seem to realize that the same "driven" dopamine passion could lead to porn use...if kids weren't warned about how the brain learns.
I'll see if Gary can find the article when he's less busy.
Found it!
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/10/02/marshmall...
Can't be sure but . . .
If I had been given the marshmallow test, I would have passed it, but I would not have been one of the students who succeeded in life later on. Marnia, I agree with the blog post you found. At the age of the marshmallow kids, I had a mother who believed in discipline and I was a kid who wanted to please grownups. As a kid, I would have waited, not because of the second marshmallow, but to please the grownups. That strategy served me well until the end of high school, where I was presented with the award for the "best" graduating student.
The next year, the wheels fell off the bus. I went to the college my mother went to and followed the same course of study as my father. Looking back on it, neither was the right choice. The problem was that left to myself, I had no idea what I wanted in life or what I was good at. My marks plummeted because there were no longer teachers to please and I had no direction myself.
While entertaining, I don't think the marshmallow experiment teaches anything, particularly when you note that a follow up cookie experiment did not have the same results.
Oh well, back to the drawing board!
P.
Pleasing the adults?
I think you are missing the point, here. Nowhere in the experiment (at least as presented in the above videos) is it suggested to the children that one behavior was somehow better than the other. The children were plainly and simply given a choice, which they made out of their own free will. The deal was presented by the adults as if they themselves couldn't care less about which choice the kids made.
I agree with Marnia in disagreeing with the blog post linked above.
There are no plain and simple choices in power relationships
Hi Augustin,
Actually, I too was agreeing with Marnia. In other words, I question the validity of the study's results. I don't think that the experiment truly measures the children's ability to self deny and I don't think that the later SAT scores are linked in a causal way to the results of the marshmallow experiment.
Try watching the video from the 4-year-old's point of view. They were taken to an unfriendly room. By that I mean, there were no pictures on the wall or anything welcoming. The room was deliberately institutional. The furniture was similar to a school setting. They were given instructions by someone who sounded a lot like a teacher. If the "deal" had come from another 4-year-old in a neutral, kid friendly setting, I would agree with you that the choice was made out of their own free will. In this case, I think that some children were influenced by the adult / child relationship. I know I would have been.
P.
Yes
You've got a point
It's true that things are never that simple...
I think passion is great
in life, and there is nothing like finding your life's work. I just think that the goal of creating goal-driven kids is a bit more perilous than the author of the second article thought. I wrote a comment on his post...but it wasn't approved by the moderator, probably because of the word "porn."