Casey et al Flashcards
What previous research was the study based on?
Micschel et al - Marshmallow test
What is the key term used in the study and what does it mean?
Delay of gratification - when you successfully hold off an activity or object you would enjoy
When you resist temptation
What is a cool stimuli?
Things we find neutral - neither pleasant nor unpleasant
What is a hot stimuli?
Things that are tempting/appealing to us
What are cool systems?
Parts of the brain involved in cognitive control and are the parts that focus on resisting temptation
What parts of the brain make up the cool systems?
Pre frontal cortex in particular inferior frontal gyrus
What are hot systems?
Parts of the brain that are more emotional and lack control - more active when the brain is resisting tempting stimuli
What part of the brain is involved in a hot system?
Limbic system - specifically ventral striatum
What was the aim of the study?
To investigate whether resisting temptation would have a correlation with what parts of the brain were active
What was hypothesised prior to the start of the study?
Participants with consistently low levels of self control from young childhood to early adulthood would have diminished activity in the right pre frontal cortex and amplified activity in the ventral striatum
Describe the participants used in the study
59 participants from original marshmallow study
Average late 40s (44)
27 low delayers 32 high delayers
16 f 11 m 20f 10m
What was used as a stimulus as opposed to food?
social temptation
Where did participants complete the first experiment?
At home on a laptop
What was the name of the impulse control task?
go/no go task
What was measured during the task?
Reaction times and accuracy
What were the cool versions of the task?
Push the button everytime they see a male face
Push the button everytime they see a female face
What were the hot versions of the task?
Push the button when they see a smiling face
Push the button everytime you see a fearful face
What were the results of the first experiment?
Reaction time for pushing button on go face was similar for both high and low delayers
High acuracy in both cool and hot trials for both groups when given the go face
Low delayers performed worse on the hot trials
Low delayers accuracy - 11.2% High delayers accuracy - 15.7%
Describe the sample used in the second experiment?
27 participants from experiment 1
1 male discouunted
15 high delayers 11 low delayers
5 m 10f 7 m 4 f
How did the second experiment differ from the first?
It took place in a lab instead of participants homes
Participants performed the task while in an fMRI scanner
What were the results of the second experiment?
No difference in go trials
Hot version - LD 14.9% mistakes HD 10.9% mistakes
right inferior gyrus was more active in no go trials
Ventral striatum was more active for low delayers
What conclusions were drawn from the study?
The ability to resist temptation is a relatively stable individual difference characteristic
Ability to resist temptation is more to do with the ability to resist alluring cues rather than general cognitive control
Resisting temptation is supported by differences in the brain
