Casey

• The key theme is regions of the brain.
• Background

  Delayed gratification is the ability to resist temptation (put off joy until later) and is part of long-term life success.
• Background

  • Psychologists believe we use cognitive control strategies to delay gratification by suppressing inappropriate thoughts or actions.
  • Delay of gratification depends on a person's ability to have this cognitive control- and there are natural differences in how humans use these strategies.
• Background

  "Cooling" involves placing your attention on "cool" features of a stimulus, such as the shape of a piece of cake. This is rather than the "hot" or appealing features, such as the delicious taste.

  This cognitive difference between people could explain why some people seem naturally better at resisting temptation than others.
• Background

  Cool features/ Tasks- less appealing features
• Background

  Hot features/ tasks- appealing features
• Background

  High delayer- a person who can resist temptation for a reward (delayed gratification)
• Background

  Low delayer- a person who cannot resist temptation and acts on impulse (instant gratification)
• Background

  Cognitive control- the ability to suppress inappropriate thoughts/ actions, enabling you to delay gratification
• Background

  Localisation of function- Different regions of the brain have different responsibilities.
• The key brain areas: inferior frontal gyrus

  • Located in the prefrontal cortex
  • Plays a role in our interpretations of facial expressions and how we deal emotionally appropriately to an expression or situational cue and gratification.
• The key brain areas: inferior frontal gyrus

  • There is a correlation between the avoidance of risky behaviour and greater excitation in the inferior frontal gyrus.
  • It is involved in the decision making process and the cognitive control during the delay of rewards and resolving any competing situations.
• The key brain areas

  • Individuals with greater activity in the inferior frontal gyrus should exhibit more cognitive control, therefore making them more likely to be better at delaying gratification.
• The key brain areas

  • Individuals with lower activity in the inferior frontal gyrus should exhibit less cognitive control, therefore making them more likely to be worse at delaying gratification.
• The key brain areas: Ventral Striatum

  • This area facilitates balance and motivation, such as inhibiting your behaviour in a complex social situation.
  • Research from brain imaging studies has confirmed that this region of the brain has been associated with more immediate choices and rewards- your desires and emotions.
• The key brain areas

  • Individuals with greater activity in their ventral striatum tend to have stronger feelings about the rewards on offer, so are less likely to delay their gratification.
• The key brain areas

  • Individuals with lower activity in their ventral striatum tend to be more likely to delay their gratification.
• Aim

  To assess whether delay of gratification in childhood predicts impulse control activities to alluring cues or social cues in terms of both behaviour and brain function.
• Research Method

  The research method is a quasi experiment.
• Research Method

  The research method is a quasi experiment as it has the naturally occurring IV (whether the participant is a high or low delayer).

  • High delayers resisted the cookie at 4 years old
  • Low delayers did not resist the cookie at 4 years old.
• Research Method

  The DV measures were:

  • Experiment 1 performance on impulse control task (reaction time & accuracy)
  • Experiment 2 performance on impulse control task (reaction time & accuracy) and imaging results using the fMRI
• Research Method

  Some participants completed self- control scales in their 20s and 30s. This is a self-report method.
• Research Method

  The experimental design can also be considered repeated measures as participants in experiment 1 did both "hot" and "cool" tasks.
• Research Method

  The study is longitudinal- it followed the same participants from 4 years to 40 years, tracking development of the high and low delayers as children into adulthood.
• Sample

  • The sample originally consisted of 562 4 year olds from Stanford Nursery who completed the traditional delay of gratification task (marshmallow test in 1960s/70s).
• Sample

  • 155 participants completed self-report scales in their 20s.
  • 135 did this in their 30s.
  • This was to see if their self-control abilities remained consistent in the follow up assessments (if they were still high/ low delayers).
• Sample

  • 117 participants who were above or below average on their original childhood gratification tasks were contacted.
  • 59 of these agreed to experiment 1, when they were in their 40s.
  • 32 were high delayers and 27 were low delayers.
• Sample

  • 27 of the 59 participants from experiment 1 agreed to do the fMRI study in experiment 2.
  • There were 15 high delayers and 11 low delayers (one man was excluded due to poor performance).
• Sample Sizes

  A) 562

  B) 117

  C) 59

  D) 27

  
• Procedure

  • Two tasks were devised to investigate impulse control.
  • One was in the presence of a neutral "cool" stimulus (less appealing) and one containing a "hot" stimuli (more appealing).
• Procedure

  • The test was devised to be more adult appropriate than marshmallows and cookies as these would be unrewarding.
  • Social cues of faces with emotional expressions were used, as our desire for social acceptance may create more alluring situations.
• Procedure

  • All the faces used were standardised and drawn from facial expressions on the package NimStim.
• Procedure

  • The participants were tested in their own homes via pre-programmed laptops.
  • They completed two versions of a "go/ no go task" in which they either had to press a button (go) or withhold from the pressing the button (no go).
• Procedure

  • Before the task started, on screen standardised instructions were displayed.
  • These told participants to respond as quickly and accurately as possible by pressing a button for "go" stimulus (whether that be a gender or emotion) , or withholding from pressing a button for "no-go" stimulus.
• Procedure

  • The "cool" version of the task included a presentation of male and female faces with neutral expressions. One sex was the"go" stimulus and one sex was the "no-go" stimulus.
  • This task was considered the cool task as gender is considered to be a less alluring property of a facial picture than the emotion displayed.
• Procedure

  • Each face was displayed one at a time for 500ms, with a 1 second interval between faces (in experiment 1).
• Procedure

  • For the "hot" task, happy and fearful facial expressions were used as the target "go" and "no-go" instead of male and female.
  • This task was considered the "hot" task as emotional cues are a more alluring/ hot property of a facial picture than the gender displayed.
• Procedure- Experiment 1

  • 160 faces (trials) were presented per run.
  • These were presented in a pseudo random order.
  • There were 120 "go" faces and 40 "no-go" faces.
• Findings for Experiment 1:

  • No significant differences were found in reaction times between high and low delayers on "go" trials.
• Findings for Experiment 1:

  • All participants performed with a high level of accuracy responding to "go" trials during both the "cool" and "hot" tasks.
  • Cool= 99.8 %
  • Hot= 99.5%