Dr Walsh Marshmallow WCCO Segment

Checking how successful people are in life and tracking their progress is not child abuse, otherwise every parent is guilty of it. The test determines how susceptible the kids are to instant gratification. All the people who are getting their houses foreclosed on probably would fail this test, restraint of instant gratification is not a common American trait.

I personally think it is child abuse to put your kid under a microscope their whole lives only to gratify yourself and feed your own self righteous ego. That put too much pressure on kids. Just let them be kids. And you still didn't answer my question. How does a child waiting to eat a marshmellow = good SAT scores? They haven't shown me a link between the two.

Why do you keep saying "under the microscope"? It's not like they were locked in a room with marshmallows every day, reporting your grades every year and test scores is hardly taking away from your childhood, you do it anyway to your parents, so how is this any different? I did answer your question, you just need to connect the dots. Why study for my SAT's when I can have something fun right now? Again, instant gratification and self control, people with self control tend to succeed. Understand?

What does the study say about the kids that get up and walk away from the marshmellow altogether. Sorry but I'm positive my kids would have gotten bored sitting there staring at one marshmellow and went outside to play. And who hasn't been guilty of putting something boring off to do something fun? We're all guilty of that regardless of whether or not we eat a marshmellow. Certainly that doesn't determine our status in life just because we can't resist eating a marshmellow.

Dude, why are you taking the experiment so personally? The kids are suppose to stay in the room for the full 15 minutes and make a decision. Everyone's guilty of instant gratification, that's the freakin point of the experiment. It's not pretending to be some crystal ball to determine your child's future and determines your "status in life". Kids who eat the marshmallow aren't destined to fail, but those who have self control at an early age have a much easier time being successful later in life

listen to what dr. walsh says at 1:11.

does anyone know who conducted the original experiment?

Yes, his name is Walter Mischel

wonderful test

Are you implying that children had to sit thru a four day opera. Pfff, I bet they slept thru the 1st act like me when I was young lad. I did watch many operas - Carmen, Of men and mice, etc Panucci, Mozart etc