2, for an overview of relevant terms and concepts).
Impulsivity is in some ways considered the counterpart of self-control, and both can influence an individual’s decision-making (see ref. 4 for a more detailed view on impulsivity). Impulsivity, on the other hand, can be defined as ‘swift action without forethought or conscious judgment (1), behaviour without adequate thought (2), and the tendency to act with less forethought than do most individuals of equal ability and knowledge (3) 3’ (see also ref. This ability to suppress one motivation (e.g., for instant gratification) and withhold the associated behavioural response is called self-control (e.g. The question was whether the children could inhibit their initial impulse (i.e., to seek instant gratification and choose the immediate but less favourable reward) and wait for the second marshmallow (i.e., to accept the delay of gratification and choose the more favourable reward). In his seminal study, Walter Mischel and colleagues 1 investigated preschool children in a so-called delay-of-gratification task, offering them either one marshmallow there and then or two marshmallows after a waiting time. The everyday life of both humans and nonhuman animals is filled with conflicting motivations, forcing the individual to choose between two or more options on a regular basis. Therefore, research on self-control in decision-making might provide a new perspective on abnormal behaviours in captive animals. Self-control or, more specifically the lack of it may be involved in the development of abnormal behaviours, not only in humans but also in animals. This self-control is likely to be regulated by the behavioural inhibition system and associated systems. 5.2 ± 1.5 s), thereby confirming our hypothesis of ontogenetic development of self-control in pigs. The results show that older pigs could wait longer for a larger reward than younger pigs (10.6 ± 1.3 s vs.
In a delay-of-gratification task, animals first learned that a small reward was hidden under a white cup and a large reward under a black cup, and then the delay to deliver the large reward was gradually increased. We investigated whether this ability undergoes ontogenetic development in domestic pigs (similar to what is known in human infants) by testing if and for how long nine- and 16-week-old pigs wait for a larger amount of their preferred reward.
Both humans and nonhuman animals need to show self-control and wait for a larger or better reward instead of a smaller or less preferred but instant reward on an everyday basis.