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[school bell rings]

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-If I eat 100 marshmallows,[br]I would be filled up!

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(Richard Aslin)[br]Everybody knows that young children,

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particularly toddlers--[br]two to four-year-olds--

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are subject to impulsivity,

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and it has been thought that[br]that is a characteristic

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that children are born with.

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-Do you know what?[br]It is snack time now.

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-And so, what we wanted to know[br]is whether or not

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some of these differences[br]between children

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can be influenced by their own[br]rational thought processes.

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-We wanted to manipulate[br]children's beliefs

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about how reliable the environment[br]that they were in was.

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We assign kids to one of two conditions:

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either the reliable condition[br]or the unreliable condition.

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-So, for the art supplies[br]that you get to use,

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you actually have a choice.

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You can either use these crayons[br]right now,

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or if you can wait for me to go get some[br]from the other room,

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you can use our big set of art supplies[br]instead.

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(Celeste Kidd)[br]The kids in the reliable condition,

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when the team member came back[br]into the room,

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had the better thing,[br]and for the kids

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in the unreliable condition,[br]the experimenter apologized,

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and said she made a mistake,[br]we didn't have that available,

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and then helped them use[br]the first option.

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-I'm so sorry, but I actually don't have[br]that big set of art supplies

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I told you about.[br]Sorry about that.

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But you can still use these ones[br]to make your project.

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(Aslin)[br]A classic example of a task

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in which children show impulsivity

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is what's called[br]the "marshmallow task".

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-For your snack, you have a choice.[br]Look what I've got.

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-[gasp] A marshmallow!

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-Yeah! So, wait, just a second;[br]let me explain.

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So, you can either eat[br]this one marshmallow right now,

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or if you can wait for me to go get it[br]from the other room,

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you can have two marshmallows instead.

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-I want two marshmallows!

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(Aslin)[br]And what we found,

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which was an incredibly large effect,

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the children who were in[br]the unreliable group

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were more likely to fairly quickly

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pick up the marshmallow[br]and eat it.

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So, on average,[br]they waited about three minutes.

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-And did you know,[br]I did not eat this marshmallow yet?

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(Aslin) The children[br]who were in the reliable group

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waited four times longer,[br]so they waited about 12 minutes,

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which is an incredibly long time

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for young children to wait[br]before they get a reward.

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(Kidd) The difference[br]is maybe due to differing expectations

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about what's likely to happen[br]in the world.

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That's what this experiment[br]was designed to address.

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-For any three year old,[br]self-control is not necessarily

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at the top of their skill base.[br][laughs]

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But, in general,[br]when she sets her mind

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that she's going to do something,[br]she's going to do it.

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(Kidd) In the marshmallow task,[br]what you want to do

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is you want to get[br]the most amount of marshmallow possible,

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but there may be other considerations.

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Given that I have this one marshmallow[br]now that's guaranteed,

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what are the chances that if I wait,

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there's going to be a second marshmallow[br]later?

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-If it was a teacher he had[br]all the time, that if--

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they would have that trust bond[br]a little bit longer,

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then he'd probably wait longer.

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(Aslin)[br]One of the lines of work

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that evolved as a result[br]of the marshmallow task

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was to look at the outcomes

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of children's behavior[br]later in life,

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but something that's been missing[br]from the equation

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is this rational process[br]by which children

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are accessing information[br]in their environment

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and making decisions about[br]whether they should behave

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in the short term[br]or behave in the long term.

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So, if they're in an environment

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in which long term gain[br]is very rare,

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well then, it makes perfect sense[br]for them to behave impulsively

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because that's going to maximize[br]their reward.

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-How's it taste?[br]-Mmmm!

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(narrator) A production[br]of the University of Rochester.

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Please visit us online[br]and subscribe to our channel

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for more videos.

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[school bell rings]