Investigating the Impact of Stimulus Equivalence on Children’s Food Choice and Preference

Abstract

This study investigated the infl uence of character on food's choices. Eleven preschool children were trained to form two equivalent stimulus classes, each comprising one a cartoon character, a geometric shape, and an abstract symbol. One class had a liked character and the other a disliked character. Three preference tests were conducted where the children had to choose between two identical packages with samples of the same snack, differing only by the label. In Test 1 the labels were symbols of the same class as the liked and disliked characters; in Test 2 the choice was between the symbol of the same class as the disliked character and a new symbol; and in Test 3 children chose between the symbol of the equivalence class with the liked character and the logo of a known brand. Most children chose fi rst, and reported to like more, the snack labeled with the symbol of the same class as the liked character. They also chose, and reported to like more, the snack labeled with a new stimulus over the symbol of the same class as the disliked character. These results confi rmed that stimulus equivalence is a useful paradigm to investigate formation of preference for brands.Keywords: Stimulus equivalence, transfer of function, food choice and preference, brand, cartoon character. Investigando o Impacto da Equivalência de Estímulos na Escolha e Preferência de Alimentos por Crianças ResumoEsta pesquisa investigou a infl uência de personagens em escolhas alimentares. Doze crianças pré-escolares formaram inicialmente duas classes de estímulos equivalentes, cada uma contendo um personagem, uma forma geométrica e um símbolo abstrato. Uma das classes continha um personagem de que a criança gostava e a outra de que a criança não gostava. Três testes de escolha alimentar foram conduzidos nos quais o participante deveria escolher entre duas embalagens idênticas com o mesmo alimento, Article

A review on equivalence‐based procedures to teach food‐portion estimation skills

“…A further four studies were excluded after full text review using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The studies that were excluded did not include portion size measurement or estimation aids (McAtamney & Annett, 2009; Santos & Rose, 2018; Smeets & Barnes‐Holmes, 2003; Straatmann et al., 2014). Seven studies published between the years of 2010–2020 were included in the review.…”

“…Studies have demonstrated that EBI has been used to teach a wide variety of academic concepts such as geography (Dixon et al., 2017; LeBlanc et al., 2003), mathematics (Lynch & Cuvo, 1995), geometry (Dixon et al., 2016), reading (Rosales et al., 2014), spelling (De Souza & Rehfeldt, 2013), second language skills (Melvin‐Brown et al., 2022) and numeracy (McLay et al., 2016). In addition, EBI has been used to teach children recycling and waste management skills (Bolanos et al., 2020), identification of emotions of others (Schmick et al., 2018), requesting skills (Still et al., 2015), food choice and preference (Santos & Rose, 2018), and portion size estimation (Arntzen & Eilertsen, 2020; Hausman et al., 2014; Trucil et al., 2015). Furthermore, EBI can be effectively integrated with additional behavior analytic procedures, such as behavioral skills training (BST) and differential reinforcement, as a packaged intervention to strengthen the acquisition of skills (Giannakakos et al., 2021).…”

Tailoring of Painful Stimuli Used for Exploring Transfer of Function

“…A second limitation is that some additional measures are not included. For example, the participants could be asked to taste the water in the water bottles and consecutively rate the pleasantness of the water as in previous studies (Barnes-Holmes et al, 2000;Smeets & Barnes-Holmes, 2003) and more recently with different types of food (dos Santos & de Rose, 2018a). The next step would be to investigate whether the valence can be reversed or changed.…”

Desenvolvimento de Cookie Adicionado de Farinha de Beterraba: Proposta Educativa para Aumentar o Consumo da Hortaliça entre Crianças

“…Nesse local é possível promover o aprendizado contínuo para um número elevado de indivíduos, uma vez que ali permanecem grande parte do dia, além de ter a presença dos professores e colegas 28 que podem auxiliar no processo educativo. Algumas abordagens que podem estimular o consumo de frutas e hortaliças na infância são as oficinas de culinária, hortas escolares 29 , exposição repetida 8,29 e personagens animados [30][31] . Destaca-se, em especial, a adição de ingredientes mais saudáveis em produtos alimentícios habitualmente consumidos por crianças, a qual favorece a aceitabilidade sensorial de alimentos com baixa preferência por esse público [21][22] .…”