explantions for food prefernces - the role of learning Flashcards
process of learning - classical and operant conditioning
classical conditioning - flavour-flavour leaning
devlop a preference for a new food become of its association with a flavour that we already like
because fo our innate preference for sweetness we learn to refer many nw foods by sweetetnignt hem
according to this principle this association eventually leads to liking of new foods on its own
operant conditioning
children are often directly reinforced for their food preferences mainly by parents or older siblings
provide the child with rewards for eating certain foods
in the form of encouragement or praise
parents amy even publish a child for not eating a food
however it is difficult to establish a preferences for green vegetables in children using rewards which is classlaical conditioning is probably to more powerful form of food preference learning
social leaning theory
explains coral influences in terms of modelling and vicarious reinforcement
children will readily acquire food preference of role models they observe eating certain foods
especially so if the model appears to be rewarded
if someone the child identifies with is being rewarded
has an adaptive function because it ensures that the children’s food is safe because others are eating them without harmful effects
important because without this modelling toddlers can and do attempt to eat potentially dangerous goods
family influxes
social influences on the learning of food preferences are most obvious within the family and in childhood
parents food preferences have powerful effects on children because parents are gatekeepers of their children eating
peer influence
Birch
conducted a study in preschool lunchroom
each partocaptn child was placed next to three children who has different vegetable preferences
after four days te participant child had changed their. preferences in response to observing other children
compared tot he control group
this change was still evident after several weeks
media influences
as children get older and more indent of their parents food choices other models outside of the family become more important
tv
young people who watch even a moderate amount fo tv encounter a signifant number of advertisers for foods generally considered unhealthy
these adverts are often marketed as fun related themes and ht eporducts themselves promoted by characters children identify with
cultural influences
Rozin
cultural infucluebces are the dingle most significance predictor of food preference
Hansen et al
we learn out cultural rules about eating
around th family table about when and how much to eat
culture determined to a large extent which foods we put on the table and which out children are exposed to in the first place
cultural rules are powerful enough to overcome innate aversions
cultural norms
attitudes towards what constitutes as a proper meal
such as the rile that a main sunday meal had to be a roast dinner in british households
meat eating
many culturally dteremiebnd food preferences centre around meat
cultural tradition in france to eat most parts of an animal
americans consume a lot of meat in form of steaks
some cultural food traditions in india are almost entirely meat free
culture and learning
associate (classical conditioning) many of the foods we eat and enjoy as adults with feelings of security and happy experiences growing up
may be linked in meneory to enjoyable special cultural occasions
vicariously reinforcement plays a part in the way that because culture influences which foods are oven to children and children see their cultural group as enjoying these foods (rewarding)
limitation
lack of support for classical conditioning
very little evidence for the role of classical conditioning in food preferences
Baeyens et al
asked student participants to taste previously untried flavours
in the experimental. control of the study the flavours were paired with a sweet tases
control group of students tried the new flavours paired with a neural flavour
no differences between the two groups in preferences for the new flavours after pairing
suggest that classical conditioning via flavour- flavour leaning is at best an incomplete expiation of food preferences
strength
support for social learning theory
Jansen and tunney
gave children either an energy dense or energy dilute youghurt drink
the children had never tasted before
most preferred taste was the energy dense drink taken at he same time as the teacher who was also having the drink and praised the drink
showed clear signs of enjoyment
researchers concluded that the children identified with he teacher so were more likely to model the teachers preference andf imitate their behaviour
research provides support for SLT both in terms of modelling and icarious reinforcement
strength
role of culture
biggest cultural changes in industrialised societies has been the increasing avaibvlitiy of food outside of the home
fast food restaurants
accompanied a greater preferences for foods of thr type bought form fast food restaurants
food as also tend to be high in fat salt and sugar because people have a preference for these foods and to increase sales fast food restaurants focus o these
so people eat more and more fatty salty and ugary foods
shows that wider cultural changes strongly influence the kind of things people eat
