Displacement of Healthful Food Reinforcers by Unhealthful Foods During Preference

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2023

First Committee Member

Karsina, Allen

Second Committee Member

Roscoe, Eileen

Third Committee Member

Thompson, Rachel

Abstract

"Preference assessments are used by clinicians to identify stimuli that function as reinforcers for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Highly ranked stimuli are likely to be potent reinforcers, but research suggests that low preference items may also function as reinforcers (Roscoe et al., 1999). Research has also shown that healthful foods may be ranked as less preferred than unhealthful foods in preference assessments but still function as effective reinforcers (Kronfli et al., 2020). In the current study we assessed an autistic male adolescent’s preference for various healthful and unhealthful foods using a series of multiple-stimulus-without- replacement (MSWO) preference assessments. We found that preference for healthful foods was displaced in combined arrays. We then conducted concurrent-operant and single-operant reinforcer assessments using a withdrawal design to evaluate relative and absolute reinforcement effects of the most preferred unhealthful item, most preferred healthful item, and least preferred healthful item. The study found that both the most preferred and least preferred healthful items had strong absolute reinforcement effects. These findings suggest that healthful items displaced by unhealthful items in preference assessments may function as reinforcers."

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