Increasing the efficiency of paired-stimulus preference assessments by identifying categories of preference.

The team ran one paired-stimulus preference assessment with six children who had developmental delays.

Instead of testing every single snack, they first sorted all foods into groups like gummy, salty, or fruit.

They then let each child pick between two foods until a clear favorite group emerged.

Every child chose items from the winning group as reinforcers later on.

No extra tests were needed—knowing the top category was enough.

Livingston et al. (2018) repeated the same shortcut with four new children and got the same result.

Butler et al. (2021) tracked edible likes for a full year and saw little change, so the one-time category test stays valid.

Zeleny et al. (2020) watched kids in feeding therapy and found food likes did not shift even after daily bites—another sign the category trick holds steady.

You can save minutes every session. Run one quick category-based paired test, then keep pulling new snacks from the top group without re-assessing. The method has now worked across three studies and stays stable over months of treatment. Try it on Monday: pick two gummy candies, let the learner choose, and stock your reinforcer bin with more gummies.