Gummy Candy Experiment

Mommy and Daddy both took a psychology class in childhood development in college, so we've been known to occasionally say things like, "Oh Annabelle, you just made the 'A not B' error." When we were in Atlanta, Daddy would sometimes also bring home developmental tests from work just to see how Gabi would do. Here in his new job, there are fewer opportunities for developmental testing.

However, we recently came across this article detailing the Marshmallow Test. Walter Mischel at Stanford University tested a bunch of four year-olds by giving them a marshmallow and telling them they were allowed to eat it. They were also told that if they waited until the researcher came back into the room, they would get another marshmallow. It's an early test of delayed gratification. There was a follow-up study by the same group which showed that the kids who were able to delay gratification at 4 (about 1 in 3) had higher SAT scores when they were 18 than those with poorer impulse control at 4.

This has been replicated all over YouTube, but we wanted to see what our almost-four year-old would do. She had asked for gummy candy for dessert, so that's what we tested with. How do you think she did? I'm pretty sure she got a tiny piece under her fingernail at the 4:22 mark, and she had a couple of close calls when she tasted the candy without actually biting it. But... um... she's not quite four yet! And isn't she cute? That's my completely biased opinion. What's yours?