Children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer on the marshmallow task than children in the unreliable condition (p < 0.0005)¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Children who first observed a reliable experimenter waited a mean of 722.43 s versus 181.57 s for children who observed an unreliable experimenter, a highly significant difference. → Kidd 2013

Evidence¶

Kidd 2013¶

Kidd, C., Palmeri, H., & Aslin, R. N. (2013). Rational snacking: Young children's decision-making on the marshmallow task is moderated by beliefs about environmental reliability. Cognition, 126(1), 109-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2012.08.004

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Randomized experiment with 28 children (ages 3;6-5;10) assigned to reliable or unreliable experimenter conditions before the marshmallow task. The unreliable group's mean wait was "M = 181.57 s" versus 722.43 s; Wilcoxon rank-sum W = 22.5, p < 0.0005. No effect size is printed.

"Children in the unreliable condition waited without eating the marshmallow for a mean duration of 3 min and 2 s (M = 181.57 s). In contrast, children in the reliable condition waited 12 min and 2 s (M = 722.43 s). A Wilcoxon rank-sum test (also known as a Mann–Whitney Wilcoxon or a Mann–Whitney U) confirmed that this difference was highly significant (W = 22.5, p < 0.0005)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Age and gender did not significantly predict marshmallow-task wait-times in this sample when controlling for condition — related
• Children in the reliable condition were significantly more likely to wait the full 15 min than children in the unreliable condition (64.3% vs 7.1%) — related
• Children's wait-times on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks reflect beliefs about environmental reliability in addition to self-control capacity — a broader claim this one bears on
• Mood-related measures (contentedness, smiling, fidgetiness) did not vary systematically across the reliable and unreliable conditions — related