, a graduate student in psychology, conducts an experiment in emotional regulation where she asks children between 6 and 8 years old to complete a simple puzzle with 20 large pieces and then leaves the room.
The trick is that the puzzle is under a box with a sheet over it, and it鈥檚 actually 鈥減retty much impossible鈥� to fit the pieces together without seeing them. A video camera records the scene.
鈥淲e put them in a challenging or frustrating situation鈥攏othing too intense, but we want to see how they react,鈥� Edler said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a bad thing if a kid is struggling in the moment, but this is one way we can assess: Do they keep trying? How much of the five minutes did they try to put it together? We also look at their expressions of positive and negative emotion.鈥�
Some kids actually lift up the sheet to cheat by seeing the pieces. That鈥檚 OK, Edler said. It might be a sign of persistence or determination, reminiscent of one of the more famous studies in psychology history.