Delay of Gratification in Kids and Crows

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Delay of Gratification in Kids and Crows

Mary Bates Ph.D.


Quote:Anna Frohnwieser, Miller’s colleague and co-author, believes they know why the birds struggled with this task.

“This finding is likely due to the children observing the experimenter while the rewards were placed on the tray and remembering where each reward was located, while the crows (which are wild-caught animals) kept their distance from the experimenter and may have relied on inference by exclusion to make the right choice,” says Frohnwieser.

The results suggest that tests of delayed gratification aren’t so simple. Performance may be influenced by the choices presented during testing. It’s an important reminder that many factors can influence self-control, both for future laboratory tests as well as in real life.

If kids and crows can wait for a better reward, maybe we can all try to show some self-control in the face of all those upcoming holiday feasts.


Of course these tests are recently controversial:

The Marshmallow Test: What Does It Really Measure?

[url=https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/marshmallow-test/561779/][/url]
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'

- Bertrand Russell


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