Biological area: Casey Flashcards
What task were the 4 year olds given?
The marshmallow task
What were the 4 year olds told when taken into the room with the marshmallow?
That they could eat it now or wait until the experimenter returned and have another one
Who tested the 4 year olds?
Mischel
Define delay of gratification
The ability to resist the temptation of an immediate reward and wait for a later reward
What is a cool stimulus?
Cues that we find neutral. They are not particularly appealing (e.g. shapes)
What is a hot stimulus?
Cues that are tempting and appealing to us (e.g. cookies)
What is a cooling strategy?
Focussing on the cool cues to reduce temptation (e.g.envisaging the marshmallow as a ball of cotton wool)
What was Casey’s first aim?
To see if low delayers on marshmallow test at age 4 years still struggled with resisting temptation in adulthood
What was Casey’s second aim?
To examine activity in areas of the brain thought to be associated with the ability to resist temptation
What was the sample size of the original 4 year old children for the Marshmallow task?
562
What was the sample size of young adults in their 20s on the self-control scales?
155
What was the sample size of adults in their 30s on the self control scales?
135
Of those who took part in their 30s, Casey wanted consistently high delayers and consistently low delayers, how many p’s were contacted by Casey?
117 of the 135
How many people were in the final sample for experiment 1 and what composition of high and low delayers were they?
59 in total
27 low delayers and 32 high delayers
What task was used in experiment 1?
A Go/No-Go task
What are Go/No-Go tasks used to measure?
People’s response control
What does a Go/No-Go task require someone to do?
To do something when they see a certain stimuli (e.g. press a button when you see a yellow circle) and to not do something when they see a different stimuli (e.g. not press the button when you see a red square)
What was classed as an error in the Go/No-Go task?
‘Go’ on a ‘No-Go’ stimulus
What were the names of the two tasks that made up the Go/No-Go task of experiment 1?
The cool task and the hot task
What acted as cool stimuli in the Go/No-Go task?
Neutral male and female faces
What were the ‘Go’ and ‘No-Go’ stimuli in the cool task for experiment one?
In some trials the male face was the ‘Go’ stimuli and in other trials the female face was the ‘Go’ stimuli
How many ‘Go’ trials were there for the cool task?
120
How many ‘No-Go’ trials were there for the cool task?
40
What acted as hot stimuli in the Go/No-Go task?
Happy faces
Why were happy faces used in the hot task for Go/No-Go?
As they would be more alluring or tempting to the adults
What were the ‘Go’ and No-Go’ stimuli in the hot task of experiment one?
In some trials the happy face was the ‘Go’ stimuli and in other trials the fearful face was the ‘Go’ stimuli
How many ‘Go’ trials were there for the hot task?
120
How many ‘No-Go’ trials were there for the hot task?
40
What did P’s have to do in the Cool task, Male Go/Female No-Go?
Had to press the button when the male face appeared
What did P’s have to do in the Cool task, Female Go/Male No-Go?
They had to press the button when the female face appeared
What did P’s have to do in the Hot task, Happy Go/Fearful No-Go?
Had to press the button when the happy face appeared
What did P’s have to do in the Hot task, Fearful Go/Happy No-Go?
Had to press the button when the fearful face appeared
How were P’s tested in experiment one?
Individually
What did P’s complete the test on for experiment one?
A laptop that had been sent to their homes
How long did each face appear on the screen for (exp 1)?
500ms
How long was the interval between each face (exp 1)?
1 s
How could it be argued that experiment 1 was independent measures design?
Because there was a group of high delayers and low delayers
How could it be argued that experiment 1 was a repeated measures design?
Because they both completed all 4 tasks
What were the two measurements from experiment 1?
Reaction times and accuracy
What were the results in terms of reaction times on the Go trials for experiment 1 for both groups?
There were no differences in reaction times of the two groups
What were the results in terms of accuracy of the Go trials for experiment 1 for both groups?
Similar levels of accuracy were found between the low delayers and high delayers, accuracy was very good
What were the results in terms of accuracy on the No-Go trials for experiment 1 for both groups?
Both groups made more errors on the No-Go trials
On the cool task, compare the performance of the high and low delayers (exp1)
Both groups made a similar number of errors on the cool task
On the hot task, compare the performance of the high and low delayers (exp 1)
Low delayers performed worse than the high delayers (more errors) but this was not statistically significant
Compare the performance of the high and low delayers across both tasks (exp 1)
The number of errors made by the high delayers was similar for both the hot and cool tasks however, low delayers made significantly more error on the hot task than on the cool task
What was the percentage of errors for the low delayers on the happy face?
15.7%
What was the percentage of errors for the low delayers on the fearful face?
12%
What was the percentage of errors for the high delayers on the happy face?
11.2%
What was the percentage of errors for the high delayers on the fearful face?
10.4%
What did Casey conclude in terms of hot cues for the high and low delayers?
Only hot cues produced differences between high and low delayers
What did Casey conclude in terms of people who have trouble delaying gratification and the number of errors made?
People who had trouble delaying gratification on the marshmallow task made the most errors on the No-Go task
What did Casey conclude in term of displaying the same behaviour (struggling to delay gratification) throughout a persons life?
People who had trouble delaying gratification at 4 years old and again at 20-30 still show the same behaviour at the age of 40
In experiment 2, what type of task was not included?
The ‘cool’ task
While completing the Go/No-Go tasks, what else was going on? (exp 2)
P’s had their brain scanned
What type of scan was used in experiment 2?
fMRI (functional MRI scan)
What does an fMRI look at in the brain?
Blood flow changes and therefore determines which areas of the brain are active
Give one advantage of using technical equipment in this study
Scientific and objective data
Give 2 disadvantages of using technical equipment in this study?
P’s may be reluctant and it is also expensive
What was the sample for experiment 2?
26
Why was the sample in experiment 2 reduced from 27 to 26?
Because 1 participant had poor task performance
What was the composition of high and low delayers in experiment 2?
High - 15
Low - 11
What was the composition of genders among the high delayers?
10F, 5M
What was the gender composition amongst the low delayers?
4F, 7M
How many trials were there for each run of the Go/No-Go task in experiment?
48
How many of the 48 trials were Go and how many were No-Go?
Go - 35 trials
No-Go - 13
What was the delay between each face in experiment 2?
2-14.5 s
What was different about the use of equipment in experiment 2?
The screen was in the scanner and there was a different push button
What were the results from experiment 2 in terms of reaction times on the go trials?
No differences between the two groups
What were the results in terms of the accuracy on the go and no-go trials for experiment 2 for both groups?
Go: Similar levels of accuracy
No-Go: LD’s performed worse than HD’s but was not statistically significant
Describe the differences in activity found in the inferior frontal gyrus in LD’s and HD’s
LD’s had lower activity in IFG than he HD’s
In terms of the results found in imaging of the IFG, what does this mean?
That the IFG is responsible for helping to not give into temptation and withhold responding so HD’s found it easier to delay gratification
Comment on the differences found in the activity in the Ventral Striatum between the groups?
LD’s showed higher activity in the VS than the HD’s
In term sof the results found from the imaging of the VS, what does this mean?
Alluring features make this area of the brain more active and therefore it’s harder for P’s to resist
What was Casey’s first conclusion from experiment 2?
That there is a difference in brain activity in key areas of the brain relating to resisting temptation between HD’s and LD’s
What was Casey’s conclusion from experiment 2 which looked into activity in the IFG and VS for LD’s?
The IFG was less active on the No-Go trials and the VS was more active
(Overall conclusion) What was a relatively stable characteristic throughout someone’s life?
The ability to resist temptation
(Overall conclusion) What did the fMRI show?
That there is a biological basis or resisting temptation which could explain why some find it easier than others
(Overall conclusion) What does Casey’s study provide for Mischel’s ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ processing systems?
Empirical evidence
Was Casey’s study conducted ethically?
Yes
Was the procedure standardised and replicable (Internal reliability)?
Yes - high level controls, lab experiment
Was the sample large enough to suggest a consistent effect (external reliability)?
Yes for the 4 year olds however for experiment 2 there weren’t many in each condition
Can the sample be generalised from (population validity)?
In some ways yes as there was a variety of ages however the people who decided to stay in the study may be different to others