Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice
07:07

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice

Published on: June 5, 2016

Preschoolers' current desires warp their choices for the future

Cristina M Atance1, Andrew N Meltzoff

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. atance@uottawa.ca

Psychological Science
|July 27, 2006
PubMed

Insights

Children's current desires significantly impact future choices. Even when thirsty, children chose water over pretzels for future wants, demonstrating state-dependent decision-making in early development.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Children's decision-making processes are complex.
  • Understanding how immediate needs influence future choices is crucial for developmental studies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the influence of current physiological states on children's future-oriented choices.
  • To examine how manipulating thirst affects choices between immediate gratification (pretzels) and future needs (water).

Main Methods:

  • Forty-eight children aged 3-5 years participated.
  • Four experimental conditions manipulated thirst (pretzels) and choice timing (now vs. tomorrow).
  • Children chose between water and pretzels under different state and temporal conditions.

Main Results:

  • In baseline conditions without induced thirst, children overwhelmingly preferred pretzels.
  • In intervention conditions where thirst was induced, children chose water even for future desires.
  • Children's current state (thirst) overrode their preference for immediate rewards when considering future choices.

Conclusions:

  • A child's current internal state profoundly influences their choices, extending to future-oriented decisions.
  • This suggests that state-dependent decision-making is established early in development.
  • Findings contribute to cognitive-developmental and social-cognitive theories of choice.

More Related Videos

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling06:51

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling

Published on: April 6, 2018

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

Related Concept Videos

Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition01:24

Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition

A revisionist approach to Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development has brought new insights that challenge and reinterpret his established ideas. Piaget proposed that the formal operational stage, emerging in adolescence, represents the culmination of cognitive maturity. During this stage, individuals are said to develop abstract thinking, engage in systematic problem-solving, and show a form of egocentrism, believing others are as preoccupied with their behavior as they are themselves.
Adler's Individual Psychology01:28

Adler's Individual Psychology

Alfred Adler, a prominent figure in psychology, founded the school of individual psychology. In contrast to Freud's emphasis on sexual or aggressive motives, Adler suggested that individuals are primarily motivated by their purposes and goals. He believed that people strive for perfection rather than pleasure. Adler argued that individuals could creatively act upon their genetic inheritance and environmental experiences to shape their own lives, emphasizing conscious motivation over unconscious...
Self-Discrepancy Theory02:45

Self-Discrepancy Theory

One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.
Hindsight Biases01:12

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...
Counterfactual Thinking01:19

Counterfactual Thinking

Counterfactual thinking is a cognitive process wherein individuals mentally reconstruct alternative versions of past events, often beginning with “what if” or “if only.” This reflective mechanism plays a significant role in shaping emotional experiences and guiding future behavior. Though typically triggered by unfavorable or unexpected outcomes, counterfactual thinking can also emerge in mundane, everyday decisions and experiences, revealing its deep entrenchment in human cognition.Types of...