RELIABILITY OF THE SENSORY RESPONDER CLASSIFICATION TO LEARNED FLAVORCUES - A TEST-RETEST STUDY

Previous work from this laboratory has examined the extent to which le arned associations between the flavor of food and the caloric conseque nces of food ingestion influence daily energy intake in humans. We hav e consistently identified a subset of subjects, called sensory respond ers, whose intakes were strongly guided by flavor cues. Sensory respon ders were identified on the basis of post hoc examination of energy in take patterns. The purpose of this study was to confirm the reliabilit y of this classification scheme using a test-retest paradigm. Eighteen normal-weight, free-living adults participated in the study. Subjects were first fed a high-calorie lunch with distinctive flavors for 5 co nsecutive days then a low-calorie lunch with different distinctive fla vors for an additional 5 days. Following this training, the flavors in the lunches were covertly switched. Subjects whose intakes were influ enced by the change in the flavor cues were classified as sensory resp onders and those whose intakes were not influenced by the switch in th e flavor cues were classified as sensory nonresponders. Subjects then repeated the protocol. All subjects who were classified as sensory res ponders at the end of the first trial were similarly classified at the end of the second trial, indicating that their initial responses were reliable.