Displacement of healthful reinforcers in preference assessments: comparing the reinforcing efficacy of healthful foods and snack foods

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2014

First Committee Member

Karsina, Allen

Second Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Third Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Abstract

"We evaluated preference for snack and healthful foods to determine if snack foods may displace preference for healthful foods when assessed together, and, if so, whether moderate or low preference healthful foods in combined assessments may still function as effective reinforcers. Three participants diagnosed with autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and with high cholesterol or weight concerns participated in Experiment 1. Eight healthful and 8 snack foods were identified for each participant using caregiver opinion. Healthful food preference assessments and snack food preference assessments were then conducted, followed by a combined assessment of the top 4 foods from each category. For 2 of 3 participants, the lowest ranked snack food was selected more often than the highest ranked healthful food, and 12 of the 12 healthful foods received lower ranks during the combined assessment. In Experiment 2, we evaluated reinforcer effectiveness of the highest preference snack food and the “displaced” highest ranking healthful food from the combined preference assessments using progressive ratio reinforcement assessments in an alternating treatments design for 2 of the participants from Experiment 1. The healthful food, although ranked consistently lower than the snack food in the combined assessment, functioned as an effective reinforcer for the target response of each participant. In Experiment 3, the effectiveness of the displaced healthful food as a reinforcer for 2 educationally-relevant tasks is evaluated for 1 participant from Experiment 2 using a multiple probe design across tasks. Using the healthful food as the reinforcer, the participant acquired both tasks in 22 sessions or less. Implications and future directions of research are discussed."

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