The role of verbal behavior in humans

• Grant number: 19/06910-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 05, 2019
• End date: January 20, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Júlio César Coelho de Rose
• Grantee: Josiane Maria Donadeli
• Supervisor: Anna Ingeborg Petursdottir
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Texas Christian University (TCU), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/01216-8 - Food behavior of children: rules, promises and correspondence, BP.DR

Abstract

This project presents an overview of planned activities to be carried out during a five months and sixteen days internship at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, as a valuable extension to the beneficiary's doctoral research. The research developed in Brazil is investigating possible variables that control children's healthy and unhealthy food intake in a choice situation. This is important given that childhood obesity is considered a serious public health problem. Two of the three planned experiments have already been completed, and the third will be conducted in the first semester of 2019, before the start of the intended internship. We verified that stating rules for food intake may decrease the amount of unhealthy foods ingested, and rule-following training with a variable ratio schedule may be effective in maintaining a low amount of unhealthy foods ingested over time. During the internship, the beneficiary will seek to improve the final thesis through the following activities: discuss the data, data analysis, and conclusions of the thesis with the intended supervisor and her students; write manuscripts for publication; participate as observer in studies with adults conducted by the intended supervisor's students; participate in the weekly meetings guided by the intended supervisor and her students; participate as an observer in a course about conditioning and learning; and conduct an experiment (depending on ethical approval by the appropriate review boards). (AU)