Mason at the Cognitive Development Center

When Weston was born, I received a few pamphlets about various projects at CU in the Cognitive Development Center, and they are always looking for kids to come in so they can observe them while they play. I guess my sociology background helped me recognize the need for normal subjects in various research projects, so I signed all the kids up. They called Mason to come in on two different days. He mostly played computer games, and they videotaped him to study later. It was fun to see. I didn't prep him at all because I was curious about his behavior. He had a good time and they rewarded him with little goodies. My favorite part of the study was the delayed gratification test. This was the only part he wasn't on a computer.
It's a study that they mirrored from Stanford. They put him in a room by himself, with only a table and a camera. In front of him they set a dish of m&ms and a bell, and told him if he wanted to eat the m&ms, he just needed to ring the bell and they would come in and he could eat them. However, if he waited until the woman returned to the room without eating the m&ms, he would get twice as much candy. I was in a room right next to him, watching it all on a computer monitor.
He smelled the candy, arranged them in a circle around the dish, filled the bell with the candy, got up and walked around, talked to himself about how he was starving and how it was taking so long...
But he didn't eat the m&ms. He waited TWENTY MINUTES.
I admittedly was shocked. I didn't think he would last five minutes, based on how he acts sometimes at home. I wouldn't blame him at all for eating the m&ms, that was a really long time for a four-year-old.
They gave him the huge pile of m&ms and he ate all but three of them right away. The last three he brought home to share with Donovan.
I am so proud of my son.
Here are some pictures I snuck while I was watching him on the monitor:

Afterwards I asked him how it went and he said it was "really really really boring." Ha.