Prior to Mischel's study, many psychologists predicted that a child's ability to wait was determined by his or her desire for the marshmallow. The conventional wisdom was that a child who really wanted the marshmallow would cave quickly, but only those who had little interest in it would be able to wait. During the testing, the children who caved simply wanted the marshmallow sooner and were willing to give up the second marshmallow. It was clear from the observations that every child really wanted the marshmallow. In fact, some of the children who waited loved marshmallows so much, they decided to do whatever it took to get the second one and went to extreme lengths to make it through the entire 15 minutes.