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Children are notoriously bad at delaying gratification to achieve later, greater rewards -and some are worse at waiting than others. Individual differences in the ability-to-wait have been attributed to self-control, in part because of evidence that long-delayers are more successful in later life (e.g.,Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990. Here we provide evidence that, in addition to self-control, children's wait-times are modulated by an implicit, rational decision-making process that considers environmental reliability. We tested children (M= 4;6,N= 28) using a classic paradigm-the marshmallow task (Mischel, 1974)-in an environment demonstrated to be either unreliable or reliable. Children in the reliable condition waited significantly longer than those in the unreliable condition(p< 0.0005), suggesting that children's wait-times reflected reasoned beliefs about whether waiting would ultimately pay off. Thus, wait-times on sustained delay-of-gratification tasks (e.g., the marshmallow task) may not only reflect differences in self-control abilities, but also beliefs about the stability of the world.

Czech doctors are prescribing psycho-pharmaceutical drugs, such as antidepressants, to more and more children, treating the symptoms rather than the causes of their condition, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes Thursday

What is a Hikikomori and what can cause this social condition? What is the answer for those who have retreated into their family homes for months or years on end? Can a life without hope or meaning be turned around even leading other sufferers to freedom?

It's an inconvenient truth of aging: In our 30s and up, it gets increasingly harder for most of us to recall names, faces, and details from the past. Scientists have long debated whether this gradual decline is an early form of Alzheimer's disease-a neurodegenerative condition that leads to severe dementia-or a distinct neurological process. Now, researchers have found a protein that distinguishes typical forgetfulness from Alzheimer's and could lead to potential treatments for age-related memory loss.

Learn about famous psychologists and explore different types of psychology, including behavioral, cognitive, and clinical, through this Education Portal course. Designed to prepare you to earn real college credit by passing the Psychology CLEP and Psychology Excelsior exams, this course features video lessons ranging in topic from the importance of psychology to operant conditioning and from memory distortion to reasons we sleep and dream. Our psychology instructors are experienced and knowledgeable educators, and they've designed the videos for this course to be brief yet comprehensive and entertaining. You'll also have access to self-assessment quizzes, which will allow you to gauge how much you've learned.