Time-shared feeding and drinking

Barbary doves were tested in an operant situation in which they characteristically alternate between feeding and drinking. The experimental findings may be summarized as follows: (1) the cumulative distribution of the intervals between feeding bouts is little affected by reward rates; (2) a lock-on index is correlated with reward rate, but is not affected by altering reward rate per se, as long as the overall rate of ingestion remains the same; (3) when a primarily hungry animal is interrupted while feeding, or a primarily thirsty animal while drinking, the behaviour is resumed after the interruption; (4) when a primarily hungry animal is interrupted while drinking, or a primarily thirsty animal while feeding, the behaviour is resumed after a short interruption, but changes to the alternative behaviour following a long interruption; (5) titration of interruption period in the dominant region of the motivational state space is always stable, but becomes unstable if the dominance changes, or if the titrating criteria are reversed. From this evidence it is concluded that feeding and drinking can be time-shared in a manner analogous to that found in computers.     

Pecking and feeding in chicks

Pecking is not controlled by nutritional state in a newly hatched chick, but by 3 days posthatch it normally is. This paper tests the hypothesis that first a chick must learn that pecking leads to ingestion; then, other (nonlearned) processes are automatically responsible for differential pecking rates to nutritive and nonnutritive items. The first experiment shows that experience pecking and ingesting sawdust is sufficient for differential pecking to develop. The second experiment shows that swallowing without pecking (using a force-feeding technique) does not lead to differential pecking. The third experiment shows that pecking without swallowing (using sand glued down to the floor) also does not lead to differential pecking. Finally, the last experiment shows that food deprivation affects pecking rate only after pecking and ingestion have been associated. These results support the above hypothesis that pecking followed by ingestion leads to the “attachment” of the pecking response to the feeding system. Motivational independence of pecking and the hunger system, the association of pecking with ingestion, and the development of behavior systems are discussed. It is concluded that the function of a behavior may not be related to its causes.     

Breast feeding: religious influences

In Orthodox Jewish communities, mothers are expected to breast-feed their infants and this expectation is to some extent based on religious beliefs. The degree to which this expectation promotes breast-feeding success was assessed by comparing a group of 50 Orthodox Jewish mothers with a group of 50 secular Jewish mothers in regard to infant feeding practices. All of the women lived in the Yeoville suburb of Jahannesburg, South Africa. An effort was made to interview all Orthodox mothers with at least 1 child under the age of 5 living in the area and it was assumed that the 50 mothers in the study constituted all or most of that population. A group of 50 secular mothers, comparable in age, education, and general living conditions, was also interviewed. The 50 Orthodox mothers had a total of 155 children and the secular mothers had a total of 119 children. Despite the quasi-religious motivation of the Orthodox mothers to breast-feed, there were few differences in the infant feeding practices of the 2 groups. At the age of 1 month the ratio of breast-fed to bottle-fed infants was 2.5:1 for the infants of Orthodox mothers and 2.3:1 for the infants of secular mothers. At age 6 months the ratio was 1:3 for both groups. At age 9 months the ratio was 1:6.4 for Orthodox mothers and 1:6 for secular mothers. The children of Orthodox mothers were breast-fed for an average of 5 months while the children of mothers of secular children were breast-fed for 4-1/2 months.     

Training parents to implement pediatric feeding protocols

Four different multicomponent training packages were evaluated to increase the treatment integrity of parents implementing pediatric feeding protocols. In Study 1 we exposed 3 parents to a training package that consisted of written protocols (baseline), verbal instructions, therapist modeling, and rehearsal training. Results suggested that the package was successful in increasing treatment integrity of the feeding protocols to high levels. Study 2 investigated three different parent-training packages comprised of components used in Study 1. Two parents were exposed to written protocols, verbal instructions, and modeling; 2 parents were exposed to written protocols, verbal instructions, and rehearsal; and 2 parents were exposed to written protocols and verbal instructions. Results of Study 2 showed that each parent-training package produced very high treatment integrity. Follow-up data in the clinic and home for 5 participants suggested that the results were durable for up to 3 months. These results demonstrate a first step in the transfer and application of research findings into routine clinical practice because we evaluated several methods for training parents to implement behavioral feeding protocols, and we demonstrated that these methods resulted in high levels of treatment integrity in a controlled clinical setting.