Stan came home last night talking about how incredible the priesthood session was. He told me a lot of little details, the first one being THE MARSHMELLOW TEST. When my little bro called today and asked if we'd tried it yet (and that little Lauren who is barely 3 ate it pretty immediately) I was really curious. Here's the deal
A scientific study was done in the 60's and 70's on self control in children. They were placed in a room with a marshmellow. The proctor told them if when he came back the marshmellow hadn't been eaten then they would get 2 more. They were left for 15 minutes.
Of this study 3 different groups came out:
1. those who held out for the extra marshmellows
2. those who held out for a while be eventually caved
3. those who immediately gobbled their marshmellow
The study followed these kids over the next 20 years I think (I really should check the conference talk) the most successful ones being those in the 1st catagory.
Here's how it went at my house-
Julia age 2- she waited for maybe 1 minute and then began slowly eating the marshmellow (we used the big ones) group #3
Eliza, age 4- held out for a whole 10 minutes before she caved group #2
Israel, age 6- added on to the test. His response to the explanation, "and then if we don't eat those we get 3 more." Okay, I agreed. Right now he's waiting for his 3 more because he made it easily to 15 minutes. I told him he had to wait 20 minutes- no problem by the look of things:) group #1
Try it out at your house and let me know how it goes.
1 comment:
i wanted to try this as well...but i'm scared--since i'm someone who puts lots of stock in these things and feels lots of guilt, i sort-of don't want to know the results! i thought of cheating---like preparing my kids over many weeks and then doing an official test, etc...
have you seen the adorable youtube video with the kids and the marshmallows...it's sooo cute...i'll have to find it and send it to you.
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