Brain & Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, Rochester, NY 14627-0268, USA.
Cognition. 2013 Jan;126(1):109-14. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.08.004. Epub 2012 Oct 9.
Children are notoriously bad at delaying gratification to achieve later, greater rewards (e.g., Piaget, 1970)-and some are worse at waiting than others. Individual differences in the ability-to-wait have been attributed to self-control, in part because of evidence that long-delayers are more successful in later life (e.g., Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990). Here we provide evidence that, in addition to self-control, children's wait-times are modulated by an implicit, rational decision-making process that considers environmental reliability. We tested children (M=4;6, N=28) using a classic paradigm-the marshmallow task (Mischel, 1974)-in an environment demonstrated to be either unreliable or reliable. Children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer than those in the unreliable condition (p<0.0005), suggesting that children's wait-times reflected reasoned beliefs about whether waiting would ultimately pay off. Thus, wait-times on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks (e.g., the marshmallow task) may not only reflect differences in self-control abilities, but also beliefs about the stability of the world.
儿童在延迟满足以获得更大的奖励方面表现不佳（例如，皮亚杰，1970），而且有些儿童比其他儿童更不善于等待。等待能力的个体差异归因于自我控制，部分原因是有证据表明，长时间延迟的人在以后的生活中更成功（例如，Shoda、Mischel 和 Peake，1990）。在这里，我们提供的证据表明，除了自我控制之外，儿童的等待时间还受到考虑环境可靠性的隐性、理性决策过程的调节。我们使用经典的（即，棉花糖任务，Mischel，1974）范式测试了儿童（M=4;6，N=28），该范式在被证明不可靠或可靠的环境中进行。在可靠条件下等待的儿童明显比在不可靠条件下等待的儿童等待时间更长（p<0.0005），这表明儿童的等待时间反映了他们对等待最终是否会有回报的理性信念。因此，在持续延迟满足任务（例如，棉花糖任务）上的等待时间不仅可能反映了自我控制能力的差异，还反映了他们对世界稳定性的信念。
