PSYCHOLOGY

Biological Psychology
Regions of the brain – Casey et al
CASEY, B. J., SOMERVILLE, L. H., GOTLIB, I. H., AYDUK, O., FRANKLIN, N. T., ASKREN, M. K., JONIDES, J., BERMAN, M.,
WILSON, N., TESLOVICH, T., GLOVER, G., ZAYAS, V., MISCHEL, W. and SHODA, Y. (2011)
Behavioural and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, (36), 14998-15003.
7. Possible conclusions
• Sensitivity to environmental hot cues plays a significant role in an individual’s ability to suppress actions toward alluring cues.
• Resistance to temptation as measured originally by a delay-of-gratification task is a relatively stable individual difference that predicts reliable
biases in frontostriatal circuitries that integrate motivational and control processes.
• The capacity to resist temptation varies by context, the more tempting the choice for the individual, the more predictive are the individual
differences in peoples’ ability to regulate their behaviour.
• Behavioural correlates of delay ability are a function not only of cognitive control but also of the compelling nature of the stimuli that must be
suppressed.
• Individuals who, at the age of 4 years, have difficulty delaying gratification and who continue to show reduced self-control abilities, have more
difficulty as adults in suppressing responses to positive social cues than those who don’t.
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