Casey (contemporary study)

Question 1

What did Mischel’s study do?

Answer 1

Marshmallow test: measured self control in children to see if they ate a marshmallow
If they waited 15 mins they could have 2
If they are it before 15 mins they would only get that one

Question 2

High delayers from Mischel’s study

Answer 2

Waited 15 mins for the extra marshmallow

Question 3

High delayers meaning from Mischel’s study

Answer 3

Those who did not seek immediate gratification
Had the ability to better delay the gratification to wait for a bigger award (didn’t eat marshmallow in 15 mins and got 2)

Question 4

Low delayers meaning in Mischel’s study

Answer 4

They could not delay their gratification: immediate seeking of gratification
And ate the marshmallow before 15 minutes

Question 5

2 areas of the brain associated with cognitive control

Answer 5

Cool systems = inferior frontal gyrus
Hot systems = ventral striatum

Question 6

What are cool systems?

Answer 6

Cognitive control that can reimagine hot stimuli to be neutral and therefore less appealing
This allows someone to delay gratification

Question 7

What are hot systems

Answer 7

Linked to gaining awards for interacting and ‘giving in’ to hot stimuli
Eg, desire and thus gratification

Question 8

What was the aim of Casey’s study?

Answer 8

To follow up 4 year olds from Mischel’s study as adults in terms of their gratification:
Would low delayers show more errors on the go/no go task designed by Casey than high delayers
To investigate the cold and hot systems in the brain of Ps to see which have higher activity levels

Question 9

Hypotheses of this studym relation to neurobiological study

Answer 9

Low delayers will show lower activity in pre frontal gyrus (cold systems thus self control) compared to high delayers in fMRI scans
Low delayers will show higher activity in ventral striatum (hot systems thus gratification) compared to high delayers in fMRI scans

Question 10

Sample of experiment 1

Answer 10

59 participants
27 low delayers
32 high delayers

Question 11

Sample method

Answer 11

Self selected: involved getting in contact with previous participants from Mischel’s study who thus volunteered

Question 12

Longitudinal study

Answer 12

Involved following up participants from Mischel’s study to gain data on self control
And following up later for fMRI scans

Question 13

Experiment type

Answer 13

Quasi experiment because the naturally occurring IV was whether a participant was determined to be a high delayer or low delayer from previously taking part in Mischel’s marshmallow study

Question 14

What task was designed for this study?

Answer 14

The Go/No go task

Question 15

Controlling for participant variables?

Answer 15

All of the same age, 44
Even gender split

Question 16

General outline of the Go/No go task

Answer 16

Press the button (go) on a certain stimuli they were presented, (in the form of an image )
But resist and not press the button (no go) on a certain different stimuli

Question 17

How did the researchers manipulate the stimuli in the go no go task?

Answer 17

The hot stimuli was a happy face (rewarding for evolutionary reasons)
The cold stimuli was a q