Two facets of patience in young children: Waiting with and without an explicit reward

Commentary: Revisiting the Marshmallow Test: A Conceptual Replication Investigating Links Between Early Delay of Gratification and Later Outcomes

“…In this vein, we developed the “pure waiting” (PW) task (Barragan-Jason and Atance, 2017) in which we measured children's patient behaviors (e.g., remaining still/static, playing/talking to oneself) when there was no tangible reward forthcoming. Patient behaviors in this task were correlated with performance in a delay task, suggesting that both tasks measure common underlying mechanisms (Barragan-Jason et al, 2018). Children also adjusted their patient behaviors by remaining significantly more static and playing/talking to themselves less when an experimenter was present vs. absent, highlighting the importance of social context in expressions of patience (Barragan-Jason et al, 2018).…”

“…Patience is thus evaluated with “delay tasks,” in which individuals choose between a smaller, immediately available reward (e.g., one candy, or $5), and a larger, delayed reward (e.g., two candies after 15 min, or $15 1 month later). However, this measure of patience (i.e., delay task) is narrow in scope because it excludes numerous factors such as social context and social trust recently shown to impact decision-making (Kidd et al, 2013; Michaelson et al, 2013; Higgs, 2015; Michaelson and Munakata, 2016; Barragan-Jason et al, 2018; Doebel and Munakata, 2018; Ma et al, 2018), as well as other factors related to the use of a reward including reward presentation (e.g., Imuta et al, 2014) and motivation for the reward (Paglieri et al, 2015). With respect to the latter, recent neurophysiological studies have highlighted the critical role of reward valuation (i.e., reward positivity) in affecting cognitive control (Cherniawsky and Holroyd, 2013; Schmidt et al, 2017).…”

“…With respect to the latter, recent neurophysiological studies have highlighted the critical role of reward valuation (i.e., reward positivity) in affecting cognitive control (Cherniawsky and Holroyd, 2013; Schmidt et al, 2017). Delay tasks also fail to consider those instances during which one must wait without a “tangible” reward forthcoming (e.g., waiting your turn in the doctor's office; Barragan-Jason and Atance, 2017; Barragan-Jason et al, 2018). These instances are commonplace in daily life and often involve a social component.…”

“…Here, we argue that patience, which we define as the “ability to tolerate delay” (Barragan-Jason et al, 2018), is a broader concept than simply choosing whether or not to delay for a larger reward. Rather, this concept also encompasses behavioral (e.g., how we wait) and contextual (e.g., social/non-social; with/without gratification) factors that influence whether or not an individual displays patience (Barragan-Jason et al, 2018).…”

“…Here, we argue that patience, which we define as the “ability to tolerate delay” (Barragan-Jason et al, 2018), is a broader concept than simply choosing whether or not to delay for a larger reward. Rather, this concept also encompasses behavioral (e.g., how we wait) and contextual (e.g., social/non-social; with/without gratification) factors that influence whether or not an individual displays patience (Barragan-Jason et al, 2018). In this vein, we developed the “pure waiting” (PW) task (Barragan-Jason and Atance, 2017) in which we measured children's patient behaviors (e.g., remaining still/static, playing/talking to oneself) when there was no tangible reward forthcoming.…”