Eating - evolutionary explanations of food preference

Question 1

Desor

Answer 1

found using facial expressions and sucking behaviour as indicators of preference that 1-3 day old infants prefer sweet over non-sweet fluids - must be innate

Question 2

Bell

Answer 2

gave eskimos in North Alaska sweet, sugar containing foods and found that they did not reject the sweet food

Question 3

Garcia and Koelling

Answer 3

gave rats food and then either electric shocks or illness inducing chemicals - rats learned to avoid the foods associated with nausea more quickly

Question 4

Bernstein and Webster

Answer 4

Practical application - taste aversion to normal foods can be avoided - gave patients a novel-tasting ice cream before chemotherapy and the patients developed an aversion to the ice cream - ‘scapegoat technique’ - then given a familiar ice-cream