Word: mischell
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...early 1960s, a Stanford psychologist named Walter Mischel began a series of famous experiments with snacks and kids. Mischel told his subjects they could have one little treat now or two if they waited awhile. The results varied widely. As Mischel and co-author Ozlem Ayduk note in their chapter of 2004's Handbook of Self-Regulation, the definitive psychology text on willpower, the very idea of delayed gratification baffled kids under 4. But nearly 60% of 12-year-olds were able to wait the full 25 minutes until Mischel returned with the two promised sweets...
...Mischel, who now teaches at Columbia, theorized that if he could focus attention on the delayed reward, he could get kids to wait longer. So in some experiments he kept the two treats visible. Sometimes he also placed the single snack next to the two others, to emphasize the bounty that patience offered. But he found that if the kids could see any of the treats, they broke down much faster. The physical presence of a cookie or marshmallow seemed to allow what Mischel called its "hot" qualities--its yummy, consummatory immediacy--to overwhelm any cooling focus on doubled rewards...
...dessert, an espresso granita with whipped cream. Still, De Laurentiis turned down nearly all the many alimentary offerings routinely presented to famous chefs by fans and job seekers. Except for two bites of chocolate someone made for her, De Laurentiis ate nothing from the many gift platters. In Mischel's terms, she has acquired "self-regulatory competence": she can cool the gluttonous impulses activated in our lizard brains when we see food...
Paradoxically, De Laurentiis and Goin learned self-regulatory competence by exposing themselves to food all the time. If they were Mischel's kids, they would be sitting with the cookie in the room every day--and not just any cookie but one rich in fat and professionally baked to perfection. Actually, both chefs were once just like Mischel's weak-willed subjects. In Goin's first restaurant job, she would stand in the walk-in and eat so much ice cream with strawberries that she couldn't touch dinner. De Laurentiis was even worse. As a student at Le Cordon...
...some of his experiments, Mischel suggested to kids that they pretend the cookie is just a picture of a cookie, not the real thing. Those kids were able to wait longer than the kids in control groups. (As one child said, "You can't eat a picture.") But De Laurentiis' and Goin's experiences suggest that we might try another strategy, one whose short-term risks may impart a long-term lesson: let your lizard brain eat all the cookies you want until you realize how awful you feel. De Laurentiis says she was "constantly sick" in Paris. Goin...