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Use the below information as the research and write-up the Methods…
Use the below information as the research and write-up the Methods section as if it were a research review/report. Only include information in your Methods that is relevant to the aim an hypothesis:
AIM: To determine whether early childhood delayed gratification correlates with long-term academic outcomes
HYPOTHESIS: It is hypothesised that a positive relationship exists between the academic achievements of adolescents in year 9, and their capacity to delay gratification at the age of 4 years.
Remember that the Methods should include details (under separate sub-headings) of the participants, design, materials/equipment, and procedure, along with the statistical approach (i.e., what you did with the data from data screening to statistical tests, not the results). You should expand on relevant characteristics of the measures you have used.
Research details are a follows:
Participants for this study were recruited through ads in The Advertiser and Sunday Mail. Eligibility criteria at baseline were:
living in metro Adelaide
4 years of age
English as a first language
physically able to undergo testing
Ethical approval was given by the UniSA Human Research Ethics Committee.
Baseline testing was done in 2010, when the children were four years of age. Follow-up testing was done in 2020, when the children were in Year 9 at school.
A version of the famous ‘marshmallow test’ was run at baseline. A parent or guardian attended the UniSA Magill campus with their four-year-old. Parents provided informed consent, and assent was obtained from the children, prior to participation.
The test was run as follows:
Parents/guardians were then asked to sit in a waiting room. The child was taken into a testing room.
A Research Assistant then told the child they were going to play a game. The game first involved selecting one treat – one marshmallow, one BBQ Shape, or one chocolate freckle. The child viewed these options and selected one, and the treat was placed on a plate in front of them.
The child was then told they could eat the treat now, or, if they could wait by themselves in the room and not eat the treat, the Research Assistant would bring them a second treat; if they were able to wait until the Research Assistant returned, they could eat both treats.
If the child immediately ate the first treat, the time was recorded as 0 minutes (i.e., the child waited for 0.00 minutes).
If the child wanted to wait for the second treat, the Research Assistant left the room, and the child was left alone until (i) they gave up and ate the treat or (ii) 15 minutes had elapsed. A video camera monitored the child when they were alone. If the child ate the first treat before the Research Assistant returned, the time they did was recorded (i.e., the time could vary between 0.01 and 14.99 minutes). If the child waited the full 15 minutes, the time was recorded as 15.00 minutes; and the child was provided with the second treat.
At baseline, the following variables are available to you:
Age in months.
Gender, defined as what the parent reported the child identified as.
Whether classified as currently living in poverty or not (according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics definition used in their Poverty in Australia 2020 Report Part 1)
Treat selected (1=marshmallow, 2=chocolate freckle, 3=BBQ shape).
Minutes waited (ranging from 0 to 15).
At follow-up, the following variables are available to you:
Age in months.
Gender, defined as what the child identified as.
Academic achievement, defined as the average band in NAPLAN reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. Each academic skill is classified between band 5 and band 10 in Year 9. With higher numbers indicating better performance. The number provided in the dataset is the average across all five academic skills (please see ).
Impulsivity as rated by home group teacher, with data collected during week of NAPLAN testing. The question was, ‘How impulsive are they in class (e.g., shouting out answers, interrupting others who are talking, or having trouble waiting)?’. Teachers made a mark on a 10cm line, with the bottom anchor stating, ‘not at all impulsive’ and the top anchor stating, ‘continually impulsive’. These marks were measured to the millimeter and entered, with higher numbers indicating more teacher rated impulsivity.
