How can classical conditioning learning procedures support the taste development in toddlers (REWARD): rationale, design and methods.

Purpose The strongest barrier for vegetable consumption in children is their preference for these foods. Surveys show that vegetables are children’s least liked food category. Also, food neophobia is common during childhood, affecting 8% to 50% of children. The development of food preferences can be seen as a learning process, as such it is assumable that classical conditioning via associative learning can enhance or impede this process. We want to study the applicability of this theoretical framework in the acquisition of food preferences. Moreover, we will study differential effects of associative learning taking into account individual differences in children’s reward sensitivity (RS). In this poster, we describe the design of a study that aims to examine how positive stimuli influence children’s willingness to taste and the liking of an unliked food item and how this is interrelated with RS. Methods and design This study is designed as a prospective observational study of 45 children in day care (aged 24-30 months) and their parents and caregivers. The children will be randomly allocated to three conditions (a neutral condition, a positive condition or a controlgroup) and will be exposed to an unliked food item from the category of (cooked) vegetables. The neutral condition consists of ‘mere exposure’. The positive condition is operationalized based on focusgroups with parents and caregivers determining cues and techniques facilitating children’s eating development. Children’s liking and usual intake of the vegetable will be assessed before (pre test). The manipulation includes a three week exposure(+stimuli) intervention consisting of 9 tasting trials (3/week). During each trial, children’s willingness to taste will be observed. Their liking will be measured using a 3‐point visual ‘faces’ scale: ‘yummy’ (smiling), ‘just okay’ (neutral face) and ‘yucky’ (frowning) on trial 3, 6 and 9. After the intervention phase, the child’s usual vegetable liking and intake will be assessed, 5 weeks from baseline (post test) and 3 months from baseline (follow‐up 1). This replicates the procedure described by Anzman‐Frasca et al. (2011). The child’s RS will be assessed by the BIS/BAS Questionnaire (Carver & White, 1994). Both parents and caregivers will be asked to fill out this questionnaire. Discussion This study can provide knowledge of how (1) RS may predict change in willingness to taste and liking behavior of vegetables; and (2) the tasting and liking process can develop faster when the child is exposed to positive stimuli via the process of associative learning (compared to mere exposure and the control group). This could lead to more successful interventions tailored to individual characteristics of children