Automated preference testing apparatus for rating palatability of foods.
A 1971 rodent gadget still gives BCBAs a plug-and-play way to rank edible reinforcers without observer bias.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Thompson et al. (1971) built a small box for rats. The box had two levers and a light beam.
When a rat pressed a lever, a pellet dropped. The beam counted how many pellets the rat took from each side.
What they found
The paper shows the blueprint, not new data. The rig removed the need for a human to watch and take notes.
How this fits with other research
Green et al. (2003) used the same kind of rig thirty years later. They showed rats will pick a bigger, later reward over a smaller, sooner one if the wait is not too long.
Ribes-Iñesta (1999) looked at pigeons, not rats, and found that stimuli paired with food can lose their pull quickly. The 1971 box could test if the same drop happens with taste.
Vos et al. (2013) found that some kids like to choose and some do not. The 1971 gadget gives you a way to run quick two-choice tests to see which client values choice itself.
Why it matters
You can copy the 1971 plan and build a cheap, bias-free preference station in your clinic. Use it to pre-screen edible reinforcers in minutes. No observer, no clipboard, just count the beam breaks and you know which snack wins.
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Join Free →Tape two clear cups to a box, add a micro-switch under each cup, and let the client’s hand breaks the beam to count which snack is picked most.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
An electronic preference testing apparatus is described for measuring taste preference of rodents and other small animals with solid or liquid foods. The apparatus is designed on the principle of the two-choice, preference technique. It operates photoelectrically with a sequence of presentations so that whenever a subject eats from a compartmentalized food tray, a standard and a test food are each briefly sampled alone before both foods are presented together (in alternate positions) for preference determination. Preferences are automatically recorded on digital counters. The apparatus is built in two modules (a preference tester and the master control) connected by multiconductor cable. The modular design provides portability and isolation of the animals from the major noise-producing components. Diagrams of the apparatus are given, and test results from a trial that evaluated positional bias and a sucrose-concentration preference experiment are presented to demonstrate its application in research.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 1971 · doi:10.1901/jeab.1971.15-215