Carefully review the following pages:
Watch The Marshmallow Experiment
Read ”Don’t! The Secret of Self Control
In his essay "Don’t! The secret of self-control" Jonah Lehrer discusses Dr. Walter Mischel’s famous "marshmallow experiment," where pre-schoolers were presented with a marshmallow and told to wait before eating it until the experimenter returned with more. They were also told that if they ate the marshmallow they should ring a bell, in which case they would not get any more. Mischel’s results were predictable: most of the kids could hardly wait to eat the sweet treat, and though some struggled more than others (there were "high delayers" and "low delayers") most eventually succumbed to the temptation. Lehrer describes what happened next: "once Mischel began analyzing the results, he noticed that the low delayers, the children who rang the bell quickly, seemed more likely to have behavioral problems, both in school and at home. They got lower SAT scores. They struggled in stressful situations, often had trouble paying attention, and found it difficult to maintain friendships." Lehrer goes on to say that as these "low delayers" grew older, they were "less successful" as adults.
After reading the article several times and giving it some thought, answer the following questions:
Assignments must be submitted no later than midnight on April 11
Registered students received an email with a link that must be used to submit their assignments
When you submit your essay, you will be asked to certify that you completed the assignment without any assistance from family, friends, teachers or any other person. Assistance includes but is not limited to: discussion of the topic, editing and/or proofreading. You will also be asked to certify that you complied with Rutger’s Plagiarism Policy and that you understand that by submitting your essay it becomes the proper of Rutgers Continuing Studies and HEROES and may be used for future Rutgers and HEROES programs without compensation to the author.
Graded essays will be posted by ID numbers on this site on April 30.