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      考研英语水平的进步，不仅要记单词，还需要阅读外语文献等资料。接下来，小编为2024考研者们，整理出——2024考研英语同源外刊9月:延迟满足:自律还是文化?供考生参考。

2024考研英语同源外刊9月:延迟满足:自律还是文化?

If you are a psychology enthusiast, you have probably heard of the famous marshmallow test, developed by the late Walter Mischel. In this task, kids are given a single treat, such as a marshmallow, and are told that they can eat that marshmallow now, or they can wait a little while, and have two marshmallows instead. Some kids eat the marshmallow immediately, but most try their best to wait for the experimenter to come back with two marshmallows. Those kids really seem to be struggling through that delay, and many give up.

如果你是一个心理学爱好者，你可能听说过著名的棉花糖测试，它是由已故的沃尔特·米歇尔发明的。测试的任务中，孩子们收到一个零食，比如棉花糖，并告诉他们可以选择现在吃棉花糖，也可以等一会儿，到时候可以吃两个棉花糖。有些孩子会立刻吃掉棉花糖，但大多数孩子会尽力等到实验者拿着两块棉花糖回来。这些孩子似乎真的在努力克服这种延迟，但很多人放弃了。

Wait times in the marshmallow test came to be seen as indicators of self-control. But what if the behavior in the marshmallow test has more to do with cultural norms than self-control? A 2022 study by Yanaoka and colleagues tested the idea that children may decide how long to wait for rewards based on what they are accustomed to waiting for in their culture. In the United States (with some exceptions), there is no widespread custom of waiting until everyone is served to eat your food. However, in Japan, there is a mealtime custom of waiting until everyone has been served, and then saying itadakimasu (which literally means, I humbly receive, but is essentially, bon appetit), before anyone digs in.

棉花糖测试中的等待时间被看作是一种自控能力的指标。但是，如果棉花糖测试中的行为更多地与文化规范有关，而不是自我控制呢?Yanaoka及其同事在2022年进行的一项研究验证了这样一种观点，即儿童可能会根据他们在自己的文化中习惯等待的时间来决定等待奖励的时间。在美国(除了某些例外情况)，并没有普遍的要等每个人的餐都端上桌之后才能吃自己食物的习俗。然而，在日本，用餐时有一种习俗，要等到每个人的餐都端上桌，然后所有人在用餐之前说一句：itadakimasu(字面意思是，感谢美食，但本质上是，祝你用餐愉快)。

Because of this difference in norms, the researchers hypothesized that Japanese children would wait longer in the marshmallow test than the American children. This is exactly what they found. This certainly suggests that cultural norms are important. The researchers did a clever follow-up experiment. They found one domain where children in the U.S. are accustomed to waiting longer than Japanese children are: Unwrapping presents. In the U.S., gifts are usually given on special occasions, such as birthdays and Christmas. On these occasions, children usually have to wait before they can unwrap their presents. In Japan, however, gift-giving happens more often, and children usually open presents immediately.

由于这种文化规范上的差异，研究人员假设日本小孩在棉花糖测试中的等待时间比美国儿童更长。这正是他们研究发现的结果。这无疑表明文化规范非常重要。研究人员还做了一个巧妙的后续实验。在美国，礼物通常是在特殊场合送的，比如生日和圣诞节。在这些场合，孩子们通常要等一等才能打开礼物。然而，在日本，送礼物更常见，孩子们通常会立刻打开礼物。

Given these cultural differences, Yanaoka and colleagues expected that if they ran the marshmallow test with Japanese and American kids, but they replaced marshmallows with wrapped gifts, then American kids would wait longer to open them. Once again, their hypothesis was correct. When the potential rewards were wrapped gifts instead of food, American children waited 15 minutes on average, and Japanese children waited about four minutes on average.

鉴于这些文化差异，Yanaoka和同事们预计，如果他们对日本和美国的孩子开展棉花糖测试，但用包装好的礼物代替棉花糖，那么美国孩子会等更长的时间才打开礼物。他们的假设再次正确了。当潜在的奖励是包装好的礼物而不是食物时，美国孩子平均等待15分钟，日本孩子平均等待4分钟。

This is a powerful result because it demonstrates the importance of culture and habit in shaping behavior. If a child waits only four minutes before giving up on two marshmallows but then waits almost four times longer to unwrap a gift, can we really say that that child lacks self-control? I don’t think so. I think it just means that they are adjusting well to their social milieu.

这个结果影响重大，因为它证明了文化和习惯在塑造行为方面的重要性。如果一个孩子只等了四分钟就放弃了获得两块棉花糖的机会，但却等了将近四倍的时间才打开礼物的包装，我们真的能说这个孩子缺乏自制力吗?我不这么想。我认为这只是意味着他们很好地适应了他们的社会环境。

 

单词：

1. norm

/nɔːm/

n. 社会准则，行为规范; 标准，平均水平; 常态，平常事物

2. humbly

/ˈh ʌmblɪ/

adv. 谦恭地，谦虚地

3.appetite

/ˈæpɪˌtaɪt/

n. 食欲，胃口; 欲望，爱好

      综上是“2024考研英语同源外刊9月:延迟满足:自律还是文化?”，希望对备战2024考研考生们有所帮助!让我们乘风破浪，终抵彼岸，考研加油!

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