How long can a child wait without eating a marshmallow if the researcher promises to bring another in exchange for waiting?
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A 15-minute self-control test or how uneaten candy leads to success. Marshmallow test (or Marshmallow test).
Psychological experiment
In the 1960s, psychology professor Walter Mischel conducted an experiment with Stanford kindergarten children to find out how much they could control their desires.
Children 4-6 years old were brought to an empty room with a table and a chair. A treat (marshmallow) was placed on the table. The facilitator explained to the child that if he restrained himself and did not eat a treat before the adult returned, he would receive another one. The host left, and the child was left alone with the treat.
When the facilitator explained the rules for getting the second candy to the children, almost all the children decided to wait. The researcher then left the room for 20 minutes.
While a few four-year-olds were able to resist temptation for as long as 15 minutes, most gave up after less than one minute. When adults offered to cover a treat (on the principle “out of sight, out of mind”) to make it easier to resist, the children, as a rule, refused.
Within about a year, the children experienced dramatic changes in self-control. At the age of five or six, most preferred not to have rewards in front of them and aggressively suppressed thoughts of them in accordance with the strategy of self-control.
Continuation of the experiment
Psychologists continued to be interested in the further development and fate of children who passed the marshmallow test.
Subsequent studies have shown that children who could hold back from eating sweets at age 4 outperformed their peers in many areas by age 18: SAT scores and high IQ scores tests. When comparing the SAT scores of the children with the shortest treat delay time (lower third) with those of the children with the longest treat delay time (upper third), the difference was 210 points. See ->
In 2006, after completing his research, W. Mischel came to the conclusion that respondents who failed the test in childhood had, on average, much higher levels of stress, addictions, emotional and interpersonal problems than those who successfully passed it.
Young people aged 27–32 years, who showed the greatest endurance during marshmallow tests as preschoolers, had an optimal body mass index, achieved their goals more effectively and successfully coped with stress. In middle age, those who knew how to wait patiently in childhood (“long delay”) and those who could not do it (“brief delay”) had completely different brain scans in those areas (prefrontal cortex) that are responsible for addiction to addiction and obesity.
Self-control plays a critical role in the long-term prediction of a person’s success and quality of life.
Mechanisms that provide self-control help manage your emotions, fight bad habits, and make it easier to endure stress.
It seems that those of us who had a hard time resisting candy as children may find it difficult to resist cigarettes as adults.
The girl reaching for the candy has already grown up, now she feels a craving for her beloved and cannot do anything about it. Divorce and separation plunges her into an abyss of negative experiences, from which she cannot get out on her own, because she does not know how, she is not used to restraining herself.
Self-control is needed for a schoolboy and a student sitting over textbooks. A ballerina mastering complex dance steps and following a strict diet. Those who want to quit smoking and lose extra pounds cannot do without self-control.
Successful studies, a career, a happy family — all this requires many times to overcome your «I want» and realize your «Must».
If you want to do a marshmallow test with your kids
Experimental conditions:
The age of the child is 4-7 years.
Setting: a room without entertainment and distractions, on the table — your child’s favorite treat.
Explain to the child that he can eat a treat, but if he is patient and does not eat it before you arrive, he will receive a second one. It is important that the child understands this condition and believes that he will receive the promised second treat.
How to evaluate the result?
If your child has managed to hold on and wait for the “delayed reward”, then congratulate him for good self-control for his age and yourself for being able to instill this valuable quality.
And if he couldn’t? If the marshmallow is bitten?!
Remain calm and optimistic. You are faced with the creative task of slowly and consistently developing self-control in the child. To teach him not to succumb to his “I want”, but to do cheerfully and energetically what “I need to do”.
One of the best ways to teach another, especially a child, is to lead by example.