On reward and gratification

Interestingly, a group of Stanford researchers showed (Marshmallow experiment, in the 1970s, led by psychologist Walter Mischel) how the capability for individuals to delay short term gratification was correlated with more successful outcomes in the long term. Essentially, these researchers called upon children and observed their behavior once they were presented with a set of choices. The children were given two choices that determined how many total marshmallows they could receive during an interaction. They could either choose to cash out one marshmallow on the spot, or cash out two marshmallows if they chose to wait it out for 15 minutes. This experiment gave keen insight into how interpreting reward signals are beneficial or detrimental for performing in a given environment as the subjects who chose two marshmallows turned out to be more successful...