Comments on: Don’t Eat The Marshmallow

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:33:41 +0000

He's referring to the famous marshmallow experiment conducted by Walter Mischel. WNYC's Radio Lab (a FANTASTIC show to podcast, by the way) did a segment about this and I think brought up an even more important feature of these findings. We can TEACH kids (and by extension, ourselves) certain techniques to defer gratification. Rather than just expecting them (or us) to remember that the later reward is going to be worthwhile, there are strategies that help us turn a 'hot' stimulus into a 'cold' stimulus.

By: Laura Moncur

Laura Moncur — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:28:44 +0000

Anne,

They tested more than three children.

By: simone

simone — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:57:42 +0000

agree. being able to teach this satisfaction delay to our children could be a good thing, but this experiment could have influenced the perception of "success" that each child had at the time of the experiment. I need to know more too bad i couldn't get the full reference.

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:46:56 +0000

You mention 2 out of 3 children ate the marshmallows, and that 1 was able to resist. However, when you talk about them in the present day you mention that the "children" who were able to last the fifteen minutes without eating the marshmallow were FAR more successful in life than the others. If there was only one out of the study, than wouldn't it be the "child"...not the "children".

Just pointing out accuracy in the study.