Elsevier

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Volume 77, February 2016, Pages 34-39
Behaviour Research and Therapy

Can the attention training technique turn one marshmallow into two? Improving children's ability to delay gratification

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2015.11.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Attention Training Technique (ATT) increased 2.64 times delay of gratification children.

  • Attention Training and children's performance on a verbal inhibition task were predictors of delay.

  • The Attention Training Technique has potential to improve children's self-regulatory abilities.

Abstract

The seminal Marshmallow Test (Mischel & Ebbesen, 1970) has reliably demonstrated that children who can delay gratification are more likely to be emotionally stable and successful later in life. However, this is not good news for those children who can't delay. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether a metacognitive therapy technique, Attention Training (ATT: Wells, 1990) can improve young children's ability to delay gratification. One hundred children participated. Classes of 5–6 year olds were randomly allocated to either the ATT or a no-intervention condition and were tested pre and post-intervention on ability to delay gratification, verbal inhibition (executive control), and measures of mood. The ATT intervention significantly increased (2.64 times) delay of gratification compared to the no-intervention condition. After controlling for age and months in school, the ATT intervention and verbal inhibition task performance were significant independent predictors of delay of gratification. These results provide evidence that ATT can improve children's self-regulatory abilities with the implication that this might reduce psychological vulnerability later in life. The findings highlight the potential contribution that the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model could make to designing techniques to enhance children's self-regulatory processes.

Section snippets

Aims of the present study

Research indicates that children begin to develop inhibitory control between 5 and 6 years of age (Carlson and Moses, 2001, Nelson and Narens, 1994), and therefore the primary aim of this study was to explore whether it is possible to use ATT in young children aged 5–6 years, and whether this impacts on their subsequent ability to delay gratification. It was hypothesised that those children receiving ATT would be better able to delay gratification than those in a no-intervention control

Design

Within this mixed-model design, classrooms of children were randomly allocated as blocks to either the experimental condition (where children received the ATT intervention, described below) or the no-intervention condition (where children received school activities as normal). The same seven-day study protocol was used in each school. Day one (always a Monday) involved the researcher attending school to collect baseline data. Day two to five (always Tuesday to Friday) involved the teacher

Pre-study differences

In the experimental condition there were 31 males and 28 females. In the no-intervention condition there were 27 males and 14 females. Table 1 shows the mean age, months in school and scores for each condition. At T1, children in the ATT condition had been in school longer (M = 5.08) on average, than children in the no-intervention condition (M = 3.71). Children in the ATT condition were on average, slightly younger (M = 5.38 years) than children in the no-intervention condition (M = 5.92

Discussion

This study aimed to test whether Wells' Attention Training Technique (ATT) could improve children's ability to delay gratification. This could be important given that childhood ability to delay gratification has consistently been shown to be a predictor of success and emotional adjustment in adult life. If the ATT creates improvement in this self-regulatory ability, it may have potential to improve longer term personal outcomes.

The primary prediction was that children who had received the ATT

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