Casey (2011)

Question 1

(Casey) Define the term ‘Delay of Gratification’.

Answer 1

The ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward.

Question 2

(Casey) Define the term ‘hot cues’.

Answer 2

Things that we find tempting and appealing.

Question 3

(Casey) Define the term ‘cold cues’.

Answer 3

Things that we find neutral.

Question 4

(Casey) Define the term ‘cooling strategies’.

Answer 4

Focusing on cool cues to try and resist the temptation of a hot cue.

Question 5

(Casey) What are ‘hot systems’, in regards to brain systems?

Answer 5

The area of the brain that is more active when you are presented with tempting stimuli.

This part of the brain is called the ventral striatum.

Question 6

(Casey) What are ‘cool systems’, in regards to brain systems?

Answer 6

The area of the brain that is active when resisting you from temptation.

This part of the brain is called the inferior frontal gyrus.

Question 7

(Casey) What was the aim of Experiment 1?

Answer 7

To investigate if low delayers
on the marshmallow test at age 4 years (i.e. people who found it hard to delay gratification at that age) still struggled with resisting temptation in adulthood.

Question 8

(Casey) Describe the sample for Experiment 1.

Answer 8

• 59 participants
• 27 low delayers (16f, 11m)
• 32 high delayers (20f, 12m)

Question 9

(Casey) Explain the ‘Go-No Go’ Task.

Answer 9

This is when a ‘go’ response requires an action (in this study pushing a button) whereas the ‘no go’ response requires no action (not pushing a button).

Question 10

(Casey) Experiment 1: What was shown to participants during the hot task?

Answer 10

Smiling/happy faces were thought of as a hot cue and tempting for people to respond to (by pressing a button).

Question 11

(Casey) Experiment 1: What was shown to participants during the cool task?

Answer 11

Male/Female faces were thought to be neutral.

Question 12

(Casey) How many tasks did each participant carry out?

Answer 12

Each participants experienced 4 tasks (2 hot and 2 cool tasks). The ‘go’ response was swapped for the second attempt.

Question 13

(Casey) Describe the procedure for Experiment 1. (7)

Answer 13

● Each participant did four GO/NO-GO tasks each including 160 trials (2 hot tasks, 2 cool tasks).
● Participants completed the study on laptops delivered to their homes.
● The task involved faces being shown. Each face appeared for 500ms, with a 1-second interval between faces.
● Before the task started, on-screen instructions appeared saying which face would be the target stimulus (male or female neutral face, happy or fearful face)
● For each task 120 of the faces were the ‘go’/target stimulus
● Participants were told to press a button when they saw the target face (GO) and to not press the button for the other face (NO-GO).
● Participants were told to respond as quickly and accurately as possible.

Question 14

(Casey) Explain how the experimental method for Experiment 1, can be considered to be independent measures.

Answer 14

Participants were either high or low delayers.

Question 15

(Casey) Explain how the experimental method for Experiment 1, can be considered to be repeated measures.

Answer 15

Participants took part in both the hot and cool tasks.

Question 16

(Casey) Describe the key result of Experiment 1.

Answer 16

The low delayers made significantly more errors in the hot task than the high delayers during the smiling face version.

In other words they were too tempted to press the face for the smiling face they just couldn’t resist it!

Question 17

(Casey) What conclusion was made from Experiment 1?

Answer 17

The ability to delay gratification is a stable characteristic (ie it is
unlikely to change as someone ages).

Question 18

(Casey) What was the aim of Experiment 2?

Answer 18

To investigate the areas of the brain thought to be associated with resisting temptation.

Question 19

(Casey) Describe the sample for Experiment 2.

Answer 19

• Of the 59 participants from the first study, 27 agreed to take part.
• 11 low-delayers
• 15 high-delayers.
• The data for one participant was excluded because of poor task performance so the final sample was 26.

Question 20

(Casey) Describe the procedure for Experiment 2.

Answer 20

The participants were given the
hot versions of the go-no go tasks.

This time they were completing
the task within an fMRI scanner.
The scanner was measuring what parts of the brain were active during the task.

Question 21

(Casey) From Experiment 2, what was found regarding the ventral striatum?

Answer 21

This area of the brain is more active when you are presented with tempting stimuli.

This was more active in the low delayers.

Question 22

(Casey) From Experiment 2, what was found regarding the inferior frontal gyrus?

Answer 22

This area of the brain is active when resisting you from temptation.

This was more active in the high delayers.

Question 23

(Casey) What was concluded from Experiment 2?

Answer 23

Differences in people’s ability to delay gratification can be related to neurobiological differences.

Question 24

(Casey) How can this study be classed as ‘deterministic’?

Answer 24

Someone’s ability to resist temptation can be determined by their activity in their brain.

Question 25

(Casey) How can behaviour in this study be a result of ‘nature’?

Answer 25

Someone’s ability to resist temptation is due to their brain activity.

Question 26

(Casey) How can this study be classed as ‘individualistic’?

Answer 26

Investigated individual differences in delay of gratification which were stable over time.

Question 27

(Casey) How can this study be classed as ‘socially sensitive’?

Answer 27

People may be upset by the idea their ability to resist temptation is out of their control.

Question 28

(Casey) How can this study be classed as ‘holistic’?

Answer 28

The study looked at both behavioural and biological explanations of delay of gratification.

Question 29

(Casey) How does this study link to the biological area?

Answer 29

It focuses on the areas of the brain (the ventral striatum and inferior frontal gyrus) that are active when resisting temptation.