Marshmallows Anyone?

"The Marshmallow Experiment" (as it is now commonly known) was a famous research project done in 1972 on the effects of delayed gratification in young children. Put together by Walter Mischel, of Stanford University, the experiment consisted of a child sitting in a room in front of one big marshmallow. Before leaving the room, the scientists would tell the child that they had 2 choices:

They could either eat the marshmallow RIGHT NOW.

                Or.

They could wait until the scientist returned, and IF they had not eaten the marshmallow already, 

they would be given 2 marshmallows instead to eat. This would be a wait of about 15 minutes.

This experiment has been many times since it's first trial in 1972, but it was Mischel's results that were hailed as "one of the most successful behavioral experiments". Mischel's main goal was to try and discover at what age the control of delayed gratification develops in children. 

As you can see in the video above, children find many different ways to keep themselves from eating the marshmallow. They cover their eyes (If I don't see it, it's not there!), they jump around, they pull their hair -- all the same things we do to keep ourselves from eating another chocolate cookie, buying more useless pieces of clothing, or doing whatever it may be that our weaknesses lead us to. 

Mischel worked with over 600 children, and found that only a minority of the children actually ate the marshmallow immediately after the researcher had left the room. 

For anyone who has ever met a child aged 4-6, 15 minutes is an INCREDIBLY long time. The fact that any of the children chosen were able to resist eating the sweet treat in the period of 15 minutes deserves lengthy applause in my opinion. Most children these days are raised hand in hand with instant gratification, promised that if only they ask, they shall receive. Then again, it just goes to show that some children have stronger roots within then they choose to show to the adults kneeling down. 

What was even more interesting, though was the follow-up Mischel was able to do with the children who had participated in this experiment. As Mischel's daughters had been friends with many of these children, he was able to find out more about them as they grew up through casual conversation. Children who were able to delay gratification were significantly more competent in the classroom,  and did much better on the SATs as well. This ability to think things through, to understand cause and effect, and to delay gratification became a strong trait which children were able to hold on to throughout their life, and this of course led to lower rates of drug use, higher grades and more successful outcomes through and through. 

An interesting step in learning more about children and their markers of development. And of course, the video is an interesting one to watch!

Until the next time...