Michael M. Mueller, Cathleen C. Piazza, Meeta R. Patel, Michael E. Kelley, & Angela Pruett (2004).
Increasing variety of foods consumed by blending nonpreferred foods into preferred foods.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
37, 159-170.
A treatment with differential or noncontingent reinforcement and nonremoval
of the spoon increased the acceptance of one or two of 16 foods for 2
participants with severe food refusal. These differential levels of acceptance
were demonstrated empirically in an ABAB design in which A was the presentation
of the accepted (preferred) foods and B was the presentation of foods the
participants refused (nonpreferred foods). Subsequently, we implemented a
blending treatment that consisted of mixing (blending) nonpreferred foods into
preferred foods in various ratios (e.g., 10% nonpreferred;sh90% preferred, 20%
nonpreferred;sh80% preferred). We then presented nonpreferred foods that had
been exposed to blending to determine if consumption of nonpreferred foods
would increase following the blending treatment. We also conducted periodic
reversals in which we presented nonpreferred foods that had not been exposed
to the blending treatment. Following initial implementation of the blending
treatment, consumption was high for nonpreferred foods that had been blended
and low for nonpreferred foods that had not been blended. Consumption increased
for all foods (i.e., foods that had been exposed to blending and foods that had
not been exposed to blending) after seven or eight foods had been exposed to
the blending treatment. Thus, the variety of foods consumed by the participants
increased from one or two to 16. These results are discussed in terms of
stimulus fading, conditioned food preferences, and escape extinction.
DESCRIPTORS: conditioned food preferences, food refusal, negative reinforcement, stimulus fading