Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29799765›Full record

ArticlePsychological science2018

Revisiting the Marshmallow Test: A Conceptual Replication Investigating Links Between Early Delay of Gratification and Later Outcomes.

Tyler W Watts, Greg J Duncan, Haonan Quan

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Psychological science, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 87 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
87citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

87 citing papers in PubMed.

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  11. The Cognitive Architecture of Infant Attachment.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025
    Review
  12. Article
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  19. Running away from the marshmallow: the relevance of behaviour settings for a situated science of self-control.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024
    Article
  20. Review

27 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Tyler W Watts1 Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University.
Greg J Duncan2 School of Education, University of California, Irvine.
Haonan Quan2 School of Education, University of California, Irvine.

Funding

PROJECT 4: Adult Correlates of Middle-childhood Skills and BehaviorsP01HD065704 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-IRVINE · PI DUNCAN, GREG JOHN · 2011 to 2015
$4.6M
NICHD NIH HHS P01 HD065704
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We replicated and extended Shoda, Mischel, and Peake's (1990) famous marshmallow study, which showed strong bivariate correlations between a child's ability to delay gratification just before entering school and both adolescent achievement and socioemotional behaviors. Concentrating on children whose mothers had not completed college, we found that an additional minute waited at age 4 predicted a gain of approximately one tenth of a standard deviation in achievement at age 15. But this bivariate correlation was only half the size of those reported in the original studies and was reduced by two thirds in the presence of controls for family background, early cognitive ability, and the home environment. Most of the variation in adolescent achievement came from being able to wait at least 20 s. Associations between delay time and measures of behavioral outcomes at age 15 were much smaller and rarely statistically significant.

Indexed as

Academic SuccessProblem BehaviorAdolescentAdolescent BehaviorChild BehaviorChild, PreschoolDelay DiscountingFemaleHumansLongitudinal StudiesMaleTime Factorsachievementbehavioral problemsearly childhoodgratification delaylongitudinal analysismarshmallow testopen data

Identifiers

PMID29799765
PMCPMC6050075

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.