Page 6 - Flipbook: Sociology Shortcuts Issue 4: Testing the Marshmallow Test

Now You Don’t…

To this end, a study by Casey et al (2011) control, what they were actually measuring was
attempted to extend the longitudinal each individual child’s reward response to
Marshmallow Test findings by scanning and something they saw as desirable: in this instance,
imaging the brains of “a sub set of (26) food. Those who were able to delay their response
individuals from the original study group” as they to the food were not exercising greater self-control
took-part in a test that replicated the conditions than those who immediately gratified their desires.
of the original Marshmallow Test using their They simply didn’t have the same level of desire
responses to different faces because, as Casey (or craving if you prefer) for the food.
et al. noted, “Confectionary items such as
cookies would no longer be highly desirable with If you want to think of it another way, imagine a
the participants grown up as adults by now”. chocoholic (not a real thing, but you know what I
mean) and someone who doesn’t like chocolate
Long story short, what they discovered from the being presented with a piece of chocolate cake.
imaging was that the study participants were not The chocoholic is least likely to resist eating the
using the part of the brain associated with “will- cake not because they lack will-power but
power” or self-control (the anterior midcingulate because their reward response to something they
cortex if you’re really keen to know). Rather, they value highly will lead them to eat it before
were using the nucleus accumbens, a part of the someone who doesn’t see the cake as desirable…
brain associated with impulse control.
Casey et al summarise this general criticism of the
Apart from the fact the original Marshmallow Test test in terms of the idea that
doesn’t seem to measure what its subsequent “These results suggest that the Marshmallow Test
cheer-leaders assumed it measured – making may capture something rather distinct from self-
the conclusions they drew about immediate and control…Our results further suggest that simply
delayed gratification largely invalid - those viewing gratification delay as a component of self-
participants who were able to delay gratification control may oversimplify how gratification delay
probably did so on the basis of a stronger operates in young children.”
impulse control.
And if you fancy wasting a few precious minutes
To put this in terms of the initial Marshmallow watching something that sensationally
test, while Mischel believed, quite reasonably misunderstands this idea?
given our knowledge and understanding of the
brain at this time, they were measuring self- Here’s Michio…

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