Abstract
Variety has been shown to increase caloric intake and has been linked to obesity. Variety was operationally defined as eating four sensorially distinct dinners across a week. Four participants (3 female, 1 male) participated in an ABAB reversal within a multiple baseline across participants design. In baseline, participants had no dietary restrictions. During treatment, variety was minimized by requiring participants to eat the same dinner meal for five consecutive days. Caloric intake and palatability rating served as the dependent variables. Results suggest that during treatment both caloric intake and palatability ratings decreased for most participants. In a follow-up experiment all methodology was identical to experiment 1, except the dependent variable was changed to caloric variability and the independent variable was changed to pre-planning a meal. Results suggest that pre-planning a meal was an effective means to minimize caloric variability across a week. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.