Foster, Nathaniel B

Hrabic, Melissa L

English

Georgia State University

TITLE:  Preschoolers’ Strategies Used to Delay Gratification 
 
AUTHORS:  Nathaniel Foster & Melissa Hrabic 
 
FACULTY SPONSER:  Rebecca Williamson, Assistant Professor, Department of 
Psychology 
 
Introduction:  Delay of gratification is the ability to forego a present reward in order to 
receive a better future reward.  Children’s ability to delay gratification is linked to 
positive outcomes later in life, such as higher academic performance.  This project is 
investigating whether another person’s example can help children delay gratification. 
 
Purpose:  This poster examines whether seeing a person successfully delay gratification 
influences the strategies 3- and 4-year-old children use when trying to delay gratification 
themselves. Our hypothesis is that children who witness a model performing a successful 
delay strategy will be more likely to generalize and perform new, spontaneous delay 
strategies. 
 
Method:  Children were tasked with waiting to touch a growing pile of stickers. Before 
waiting, however, children in the experimental group saw an experimenter successfully 
delay while covering her eyes. In contrast, in control groups, children saw an 
experimenter delay without covering her eyes or did not see the experimenter delay.  
Children’s use of strategies known to aid in delaying gratification was scored including 
vocalizations, body movement, and gaze.   
 
Results:  In 3-year-old children, the number of stickers earned and the number of 
strategies used were positively correlated; however, there was no difference in the 
number of strategies used between the conditions. Data scoring for the 4-year-old 
children is underway.    
 
Conclusion:  The correlation between number of strategies performed and number of 
stickers earned is in line with previous findings that children are better able to delay 
gratification if they are instructed to use specific delay strategies.  There was no 
significant difference between the conditions and the performance of strategies.  This 
suggests that the adult’s behavior did not lead children to generalize and use novel 
strategies to help delay on the task.  It is possible that 3-year-olds are too young to 
understand the significance of the adult’s behaviors. Data from 4-year-olds will help 
determine whether older preschoolers can benefit from another’s example.   
 
 


Preschoolers\u27 Strategies Used to Delay Gratification

ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University

TITLE:  Preschoolers’ Strategies Used to Delay Gratification  AUTHORS:  Nathaniel Foster & Melissa Hrabic  FACULTY SPONSER:  Rebecca Williamson, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology  Introduction:  Delay of gratification is the ability to forego a present reward in order to receive a better future reward.  Children’s ability to delay gratification is linked to positive outcomes later in life, such as higher academic performance.  This project is investigating whether another person’s example can help children delay gratification.  Purpose:  This poster examines whether seeing a person successfully delay gratification influences the strategies 3- and 4-year-old children use when trying to delay gratification themselves. Our hypothesis is that children who witness a model performing a successful delay strategy will be more likely to generalize and perform new, spontaneous delay strategies.  Method:  Children were tasked with waiting to touch a growing pile of stickers. Before waiting, however, children in the experimental group saw an experimenter successfully delay while covering her eyes. In contrast, in control groups, children saw an experimenter delay without covering her eyes or did not see the experimenter delay.  Children’s use of strategies known to aid in delaying gratification was scored including vocalizations, body movement, and gaze.    Results:  In 3-year-old children, the number of stickers earned and the number of strategies used were positively correlated; however, there was no difference in the number of strategies used between the conditions. Data scoring for the 4-year-old children is underway.     Conclusion:  The correlation between number of strategies performed and number of stickers earned is in line with previous findings that children are better able to delay gratification if they are instructed to use specific delay strategies.  There was no significant difference between the conditions and the performance of strategies.  This suggests that the adult’s behavior did not lead children to generalize and use novel strategies to help delay on the task.  It is possible that 3-year-olds are too young to understand the significance of the adult’s behaviors. Data from 4-year-olds will help determine whether older preschoolers can benefit from another’s example.     

https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1231&amp;context=gsurc

Preschoolers\u27 Strategies Used to Delay Gratification

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