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CelesteKidds12.docxMarch 10, 2021
Celeste Kidd’s
In “The Marshmallow Test Revisited”, Celeste Kidd argues that children’s self-control and long-term thinking is affected by the context in which the decision is being made. Kidd demonstrated through an experiment how the situation surrounding the decision-making process, the information available and interaction with others can alter the way we perceive reward. A famous experiment was developed in the 60’s to evaluate children’s capacity to delay gratification. The examiner would provide the child with two choices: to eat one marshmallow immediately or to wait longer to receive two marshmallows. Will the kid withhold the temptation to eat one marshmallow now for the greater benefit of eating two marshmallows later? Professor Kidd and her team built an experiment to not only confirmed what was already been shown in previous experiments, but also to verify whether or not other variables could possible affect the child’s behavior. They modified the experiment by altering the condition and situation in which the kids were going to be tested. These conditions set the premise for dividing the experiment into two groups: one in a reliable environment and another in an unreliable one. Both groups were promised many things in various scenarios, like toys and tools for playing. The unreliable environment group were promised several times rewards for later, but after a few minutes the rewards never came. On the other hand, the reliable group received everything they were told that they would get. After a few attempts the marshmallow test was presented. A marshmallow was placed in front of the child on a table, and they were told they could eat one marshmallow at the moment or wait for the examiner to look for two marshmallows in other room. The results of the experiment showed that children in the unreliable group waited an average of three minutes and two seconds for the examiner to come; but the reliable group withheld the temptation an average of 12 minutes. By altering the conditions of the test, the groups would experience different points of reference to discern which choice would be the best to make, and thus determining whether previous experience could affect the decision-making process. Experiencing rewards when promised to change the rationalization of the children to weight the benefits of waiting for a greater good in the future by deciding to withhold gratification for longer periods of time. Decisions never occur in a vacuum; and previous experiences and surrounding situations affect greatly our capacity to decide whether or not delaying gratification is a practical and beneficial approach to obtain benefits in the future.
Works Cited
Kidd, Celeste. “Marshmallow Study Revisited, The.” Report on an updated version of the Marshmallow Experiment. October 11, 2012, http://rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=4622
