So what's the lesson to take from this? It's not that the marshmallow test is destiny and that preschoolers who fail it are doomed, Mischel says. In a series of studies that began in the late 1960s and continue today, psychologist Walter Mischel, PhD, found that children who, as 4-year-olds, could resist a tempting marshmallow placed in front of them, and instead hold out for a larger reward in the future (two marshmallows), became adults who were more likely to finish college and earn higher incomes, and were less likely to become overweight. The plot is funny, but it's based on serious science. So Cookie Monster - and by extension Sesame Street's preschool audience - spent the season learning new tricks and strategies to savor the cookies slowly rather than scarfing them down with abandon. Cookie Monster wanted to join the "Cookie Connoisseurs Club," and to do so he had to learn how to control himself around cookies. But last season, the TV show's pint-size viewers saw something different. For more than 40 years, Sesame Street's Cookie Monster sent crumbs flying as he wolfed down any cookie within his reach.
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