From the Boston Globe, 22 October 2008:
It is a simple test, but has surprising power to predict a child’s future. A 4-year-old is left sitting at a table with a marshmallow or other treat on it and given a challenge: Wait to eat it until a grown-up comes back into the room, and you’ll get two. If you can’t wait that long, you’ll get just one.
Some children can wait less than a minute, others last the full 20 minutes. The longer the child can hold back, the better the outlook in later life for everything from SAT scores to social skills to academic achievement, according to classic work by Columbia University psychologist Walter Mischel, who has followed his test subjects from preschool in the late 1960s into their 40s now.
I remember failing that test like it was yesterday – sitting there with a marshmallow staring back at me was just too tempting to resist. In fact, come to think of it… it was yesterday. I never even took that test as a child!
Blërg!
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I remember that test from the special summer camp I attended one year. The second marshmallow was at the top a of gentle slope. It was torture! So near, yet so far.