The ultimate delay of gratification test? Graduate school.

This week, we’re kicking off the first episode of our new series, “A conversation with a FUTURE luminary,” hosted by our editor, Jenna DiStefano! The series offers an inside look at life in graduate school while giving current graduate students a space to share their research.

Jenna is joined by UC Davis Psychology PhD candidate Rachel Foster. In the first segment, Rachel shares her journey to academia, her experience with the graduate school application process, and what day-to-day life is like as a PhD student.

In the second segment, Jenna and Rachel dive into Rachel’s research on delay of gratification and its sociocultural influences in childhood. They discuss exciting new work on how we measure delay of gratification, how habits around waiting develop, and when waiting may rely on effort_ful versus effort_less_ control.

Along the way, they tackle some big questions: Is the marshmallow test still worth using? What does performance on the marshmallow test actually tell us about long-term outcomes? And how does a child’s sociocultural environment shape their ability, and willingness, to wait?

Links
Yanaoka, K., Foster, R., Michaelson, L. E., Saito, S., & Munakata, Y. (2024). The power of cultural habits: The role of effortless control in delaying gratification. Current Opinion in Psychology, 60, 101903. Link

Yanaoka, K., Foster, R., Saito, S., & Munakata, Y. Effortful and effortless control: Children's behavior while delaying gratification reveals distinct roles of sociocultural norms and habits. Manuscript under review.

Yanaoka, K., Michaelson, L. E., Guild, R. M., Dostart, G., Yonehiro, J., Saito, S., & Munakata, Y. (2022). Cultures crossing: The power of habit in delaying gratification. Psychological Science, 33(7), 1172-1181. Link