6.4

I believe that self-control or self-regulation plays a large role in learning.  I see everyday at work that the students who are struggling are often described as not having good independent work skills, initiation, or self-control.  Both the article and the Colbert video mentioned attention and how control of attention can aid self-control.  In students with ADHD, we often see deficits in executive functioning.  Executive functioning are the skills like organization, good work habits, and impulse control.  These students are unable to attend to to the most important aspects of school.  They are said to have little self-control.  It is impossible to inhibit responses as James said is necessary for having will when you are unable to direct your attention properly.  The article called the manual shifting of attention cognitive change.  The researcher on Colbert also talked about the necessity of shifting attention away from the marshmallow in the experiment.  The children who could wait for two had to shift their attention away from the fact that they could get one.

I believe that prospection plays a large role in success as well.  The article discussed how people who have strong future goals tend to be able to use better self-regulation skills to achieve those goals.  The same is true of the marshmallow experiment.  Children who were able to set their sights on two marshmallows were more motivated to wait.  I believe that this is why those children who waited were more successful later in life.  That goal setting and achieving tendency probably stuck with them.  I can relate to that.  I have know what I wanted to be and what degrees I wanted to obtain since I was a sophomore in high school.  That clear goal has helped propel me through undergraduate and graduate school with no breaks or wavering.  I had friends who started college more unsure about what they wanted to do in life.  Those friends were more likely to take time off, not finish, or finish but start working in a different field.  I believe that my ability to goal set has helped me to be successful in life and I imagine the same is true for the children from the experiment.