Lehrer article response

Mark each time Lehrer offers a definition. How elaborate is each definition? What does the sequence of these mean in aggregate?

“There is something deeply contradictory about Walter Mischel—a psychologist who spent decades critiquing the validity of personality tests—inventing the marshmallow task, a simple test with impressive predictive power.” (paragraph 18)

““Young kids are pure id,’ Mischel says. ‘They start off unable to wait for anything—whatever they want they need. But then, as I watched my own kids, I marveled at how they gradually learned how to delay and how that made so many other things possible.’” (paragraph 19)

“What, then, determined self-control? Mischel’s conclusion, based on hundreds of hours of observation, was that the crucial skill was the ‘strategic allocation of attention.’ Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the ‘hot stimulus’—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from ‘Sesame Street.’” (paragraph 22)

This is the first occurrence of a scientific definition—and it’s relatively far into the text (22 paragraphs in), so it’s likely that the readers who have read this much are willing to trust Lehrer as he delves into the scientific underpinnings of the article.

“‘If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,’ Mischel says. ‘The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.’ \ In adults, this skill is often referred to as metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and it’s what allows people to outsmart their shortcomings.” (paragraph 23)

Again, a technical definition, but Lehrer doesn’t allow the definition to break up the text’s flow, he quickly and simply defines the term, allowing it to contribute to the meaning of the text, and continues to analyze.

“The early appearance of the ability to delay suggest that is has a genetic origin, an example of personality at its most predetermined.” (paragraph 26)

“Two of the experiments were of particular interest. The first is a straightforward exercise known as the ‘suppression task.’ Subjects are given four random words, two printed in blue and two in red. After reading the words, they’re told to forget the blue words and remember the red words. Then the scientists provide a stream of ‘probe words’ and ask the subjects whether the probes are the words they were asked to remember.” (paragraph 30)

“In the second, known as the Go/No Go task, subjects are flashed a set of faces with various expressions. At first, they are told to press the space bar whenever they see a smile. This tasks little effort, since smiling faces automatically trigger what’s known as ‘approach behavior.’” (paragraph 31)

“Approach behavior” is the most interesting term here, letting its connotative meaning shine.

“For the most part, the regions are in the frontal cortex—the overhang of brain behind the eyes—and include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the anterior prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate, and the right and left inferior frontal gyri. While these cortical folds have long been associated with self-control, they’re also essential for working memory and directed attention. According to the scientists, that’s not an accident. ‘These are powerful instincts telling us to reach for the marshmallow or press the space bar,’ Jonides says. ‘The only way to defeat them is to avoid them, and that means paying attention to something else. We call that will power, but it’s got nothing to do with the will.’’” (paragraph 33)

A very complex set of definitions, this paragraph has the heaviest scientific content; this is because Lehrer is listing brain regions, and systematically revealing their function. But he doesn’t let these definitions scare readers off because he introduces a quotation directly after. It’s almost as if he anticipates that readers will skip past the scientific jargon and go straight to the interview research, but those who are straining clinical content out of the article can still benefit.

Have you found any metaphors in this text?  Did you expect to find metaphors or metaphoric language in a scientific text?


“Others start kicking the desk, or tug on their pigtails, or stroke the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal.” (paragraph 3)

As early as the third paragraph, metaphors are used. This is curious to find in an article written by a researcher, but not so hard to understand after much more of Lehrer’s writing is read.

“One of Mischel’s favorite metaphors for this model of personality, known as interactionism, concerns a car making a screeching noise. How does a mechanic solve the problem? He begins by trying to identify the specific conditions that trigger the noise. Is there a screech when the car is accelerating, or when it’s shifting gears, or turning at slow speeds? Unless the mechanic can give the screech a context, he’ll never find the broken part.” (paragraph 19)