OK, So You're Not a Monkey. But Did You Know Delayed Gratification Marks Who's More Intelligent?

Granted, we're not monkeys.  But a new study has found that chimpanzees who can control themselves are more intelligent.

Now, I don't know whether that means they wait for the banana instead of immediately gulping it down but this study at Georgia State University says, as is true in humans, chimpanzees’ general intelligence is correlated to their ability to exert self-control and delay gratification, according to newswise.com.
The research finding relates back to the famous “marshmallow test,” an experiment originally performed at Stanford University in the 1960s, where children were given the choice of taking a small, immediate reward (a single marshmallow placed in front of them) or waiting to earn a larger reward (two marshmallows). Previous research has found that children who perform well on the marshmallow test and other tests of delayed gratification tend to also perform well on tests of general intelligence.
Georgia State researchers Michael J. Beran and William D. Hopkins have found the same link exists in chimpanzees. Their study, which tracks how often chimpanzees choose to wait for a larger, better reward rather than taking a smaller reward right away, also measured how well the chimpanzees managed to wait during the delay period, when there is a constant temptation to capitulate and accept the smaller reward, the web site reports.
The chimpanzees then completed the Primate Cognitive Test Battery, a test of general intelligence that measures a variety of individual social and cognitive factors, such as the capacity to follow pointing gestures.
Those chimpanzees who showed the highest levels of generalized intelligence were also the most efficient in the delayed gratification test. Intelligence scores were related not only to how often chimpanzees chose to try to wait for the better reward, but also to how well the chimpanzees could wait when they chose to do so. This was the first such study to examine the relation between general intelligence scores and delayed gratification abilities in chimpanzees.
“The fact that this link between self-control and intelligence exists in species other than humans may demonstrate an evolutionary basis for the role that willpower plays in general intelligence,” says Beran, lead author of the study. 
.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ever Make a Bad Choice? Make it Worse by Rationalizing It?

I knew it was probably a risky thing to do.  But I hadn't been paid, and kept getting the runaround, so when I went over my boss's head, and his boss told me he'd look into it the following week, what I'd been hearing all along, I kind of went a little nuts and said, "Please don't take this the wrong way but I feel like I'm getting the runaround again." And, poof!  They fired me. So how do we talk ourselves into rationalizing bad choices ? I had every right to get paid.  But most likely I should have known the guy had a thin skin and I should have been more careful.  Even my son, 16 at the time, told me I should have not done it. "When a reward is tempting enough, people will break their own moral codes to gain the desired prize," says newswise.com. "Afterward, they’ll tell you exactly how they were justified: 'It wasn’t as if anyone was harmed,' “I was only borrowing …,” 'My boss told me too,' or 'It’s our ...
Read more

Happy? Stay Away From Others, Say Experts

This may sound very strange but a new study says people protect their good moods to stay safe. What's that again? " Once happy, steer clear of choices that could invite in negative feelings," says newswise.com, quoting  Heath Demaree , professor and chair of the  Department of Psychological Sciences  in the  College of Arts and Sciences  at Case Western Reserve. “They wonder: How much better does it get? If you’re already happy, why risk making your mood worse?” says Demaree, co-author of the study, published in the journal  Frontiers of Psychology . “Essentially, it’s quitting while you’re ahead.” "The findings differ from some previous research, which has shown that a person’s risk-taking increases after they’ve become successful—known as the 'house money' theory. Still, other studies suggest that people risk more when they’re losing, hoping to break even," newswise writes. I don't know about you but when I'm happy, I want to shar...
Read more

Does the 'Nudge Factor' Influence Your Decision-Making?

I'm not much of a gambler.    Because it has had quite a negative impact on my family (my grandfather went to jail for it back in the 1920's), I've stayed away from it. But now a new study suggests why some people hold them, and others fold 'em. Why do people make high-risk choices – not only in casinos, but also in other aspects of their lives – even when they know the odds are stacked against them? A team led by a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer has researched why some people make high-risk choices – not only in casinos, but also in other aspects of their lives – even when they know the odds are stacked against them, according to newswise.com. Scientists found that "the decision to 'up the ante ' even in the face of long odds is the result of an internal bias that adds up over time and involves a 'push-pull' dynamic between the brain’s two hemispheres ," the web site reports. Whether you are suffering from a losing streak or rid...
Read more