Attentional Determinants of Children's Self-Control in Waiting and Working Situations

Abstract

PATTERSON, CHARLOTTE J., and CARTER, D. BRUCE. Attentional Determinants of Children's SelfControl in Waiting and Working Situations. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 272-275. This study investigated the effect of reward salience on preschool children's self-control in instrumental waiting and working situations. In the waiting conditions, receipt of a preferred reward was contingent on waiting for a given length of time in a standard delay-of-gratification paradigm. In the working conditions, rewards were contingent on completion of a given amount of work in a task-persistence situation. Rewards were either available or unavailable for attention during the test period. The amount of time children sustained waiting or working behavior served as the main dependent measure. As in earlier research, self-control was less effective in waiting conditions when rewards were available for attention. However, presence of the rewards facilitated self-control in the working conditions. These results suggest that the cognitive determinants of effective self-control in working situations differ substantially from those in waiting situations.