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ERIC Number: ED662939
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0965
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Influence of Environmental Reliability in the Marshmallow Task: An Extension Study
Lillie Moffett; Carol Flannagan; Priti Shah
Grantee Submission, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology v194 Article 104821 2020
This study is an extension of an experiment where the reliability of children's environment was manipulated before children completed the Marshmallow Task (Cognition, 2013, Vol. 126, pp. 109-114). In that experiment, Kidd, Palmeri, and Aslin found a significant difference in waiting time between two conditions in which the experimenter demonstrated reliability (by returning with promised reward) or unreliability (by not returning with rewardP). Children who had an unreliable experimenter did not wait as long during the Marshmallow Task, suggesting that delay gratification performance may be, in part, based on a rational decision. Due to the important theoretical and practical implications of this finding, we repeated the procedure of this experiment with 60 3- to 5-year-old children (twice as many as in the original study), but in a more familiar context (e.g., children's school instead of a lab). Using Bayesian analyses, we found an effect (albeit smaller than in the original study) of experimenter reliability as well as a significant gender by condition interaction effect.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Michigan
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305B150012
Author Affiliations: N/A