Effects of experience on the modification of food acceptance patterns

Parallels have been drawn between persons at the two extremes of the life span: the very young and the very old. Some of these purported similarities, including referring to the latter portion of the life span as a "second childhood," are clearly unsupported by the data. The view presented above, however, suggests that experience with food continues to modify food acceptance patterns across the life span through associative conditioning. To the extent that the young and old have similar experiences with food, we can expect similar patterns of change in food acceptance to emerge. Research has been reviewed on the effects of experience on the development and modification of food acceptance patterns in children. Two aspects of this research--the associative conditioning of food cues to consequences and the effects of exposure on preference for novel foods--are particularly relevant to developing hypotheses regarding how experience with food could shape food acceptance patterns in the elderly. Research should be directed to exploring the social contexts and consequences of eating as possible contributors to reduced food acceptance among the elderly.