Casey et al

• Performance on a delay-of-gratification task in childhood

  Predicted the efficiency with which the same individuals performed a cognitive control task (go/nogo task) as adolescents and young adults
• Pre-schoolers who directed their attention toward rewarding aspects of the classic delay-of-gratification situation

  • Had more difficulty suppressing inappropriate actions than did their low-temptation-focus counterparts
• Performance in preschool delay of gratification


  May predict the capacity, in adulthood, to control thoughts and actions, as reflected in performance on cognitive control tasks
• The ability to control one's thoughts and actions can vary by the potency of interfering information
• Alluring or social contexts can diminish self control
• Aim: To build on previous research to assess whether delay of gratification in childhood predicts impulse control abilities and sensitivity to alluring or social cues (happy faces) at the behavioural and neural level when participants were in their 40s
• Research design:

  • Quasi/natural experiment
  • longitudinal
• IV: whether the participant was a high delayer or a low delayer
• DV: performance on the impulse control task
• Sample for exp 1:

  59 participants. 23 males, 36 females. 32 high delayers (12 m, 20 f), 27 low delayers (11 m, 16 f)
• Sample for exp 2:

  27 participants of the 59 who participated in exp 1 (13 males, 14 females). 15 high delayers (5 m, 10 f), low delayers (7 m, 4 f)
• Exp 1 method:

  Used a programmed laptop sent to their homes. Cool task responded to gender, the Hot task to fearful/happy faces. Participants were instructed to either Go or NoGo to one stimuli. Participants were instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible. Each face appeared for 500ms, followed by a 1-s interval. A total of 160 trials were presented per run in pseudorandomised order (120 go, 40 no-go).
• Exp 2 method:

  27 participants from Experiment 1 consented to complete the imaging study. Participants completed a “hot” version of the go/no-go task in Experiment 1. Each face stimulus was presented for 500ms, followed by a jittered interval ranging from 2 to 14.5s in duration (mean 5.2s). A total of 48 trials were presented per run in pseudorandomised order (35 go, 13 no-go
• Results:

  • Accuracy for “no-go” trials was more variable, with low delayers committing more false alarms than high delayers. Low delayers performed worse on the “hot” task than the high delayers.
  • Only the low delay group showed a significant decline in performance for the “hot” trials compared to the “cool”
  • Low delayers, who had more difficulty delaying gratification at four years of age showed more difficulty as adults in suppressing responses to happy faces than the high delayers.
• Results pt2:

  • The right inferior frontal gyrus was involved in accurately withholding a response.
  • Low delayers had diminished recruitment of the inferior frontal gyrus (cognitive) for correct “no-go” relative to “go” trials.
  • The ventral striatum (emotive) demonstrated significant difference in recruitment between high and low delayers.
• Results pt3:

  • The ventral striatum (reward-related) showed elevated activity to happy “no-go” trials for low delayers
  • Inferior frontal gyrus differentiated between “no-go” and “go” trials to a greater extent in high delayers.
  • The ventral striatum showed exaggerated recruitment in low delayers.
• Conclusion:

  • Sensitivity to environmental hot cues plays a significant role in an individual’s ability to suppress actions toward alluring cues.
  • Resistance to temptation as measured originally by a delay-of- gratification task is a relatively stable individual difference – it doesn’t change over time.
  • The capacity to resist temptation varies by context, the more tempting the choice, the more predictive the ability to regulate their behaviour.
• Conclusion pt 2:

  • The ability to delay gratification is a function not only of cognitive control but also of the nature of the stimuli that must be suppressed.
  • Individuals who, at the age of four, have difficulty delaying gratification and who continue to show reduced self-control abilities, have more difficulty as adults in suppressing responses to positive social cues than those who don’t.