Abstract
Failure to delay gratification may not indicate poor control or irrationality, but might be an adaptive response. Two studies investigated 3.5- and 4.5-year-old children's ability to adapt their delay and saving behavior when their preference (e.g., to delay or not delay) became nonadaptive. In Study 1 (N = 140), children's delay preference was associated with a risk of losing rewards. In Study 2 (N = 142), children's saving preference was associated with an inability to play an attractive game. Whereas baseline delaying and saving preferences were unrelated to a standardized executive function measure, children who switched to their nonpreferred choice scored higher, suggesting flexibility of decision-making may be a more meaningful dependent variable than baseline performance in developmental research on self-control.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1434-1448 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Child development |
Volume | 86 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.