Symbolic mediation and preschoolers' performance on prudent decision-making tasks.
Published: 2005
Language: eng
Number of pages: 53
Subjects: Reward (Psychology) in children.; Decision making in children.; Perception in children.; Learning, Psychology of.
Description: Sixty-three 3&frac12;--5&frac12; year-olds were assigned to one of four conditions: the Standard condition, in which participants were presented with the option of having one reward immediately, or having two or more rewards at the end of the task (about 15 minutes later); the Symbol condition, in which participants were shown cards depicting asterisks that stood for the different quantities of rewards; the Hidden condition, in which the rewards were covered with opaque bowls; and the Hidden Symbol condition, in which the rewards were covered with opaque bowls that had asterisk cards affixed to them. Analyses revealed no hiding effects for any sample of participants, but the subset of participants who received stickers as rewards (N = 51) showed a marginally significant labeling effect. I propose that the symbolic stimuli reallocated participants' attention from the attractive properties of the rewards to the rewards' quantities, allowing them to delay self-gratification.
Notes: Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

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Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-01, page: 0048.

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