Leonard H Epstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 188533 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leonard H Epstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leonard H |
| FAMILY NAME | Epstein |
| SIGNATURE | EPSTEIN L H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University at Buffalo, State University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1167-8848 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 88 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 572 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 88 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Effects of an optimal defaults grocery shopping intervention on household grocery purchases of families with young children
Observing general and food-specific parenting in a restaurant setting: An exploratory study
Sensitization of the reinforcing value of food is associated with greater BMI percentile in lower income adolescents
The Experimental Beverage Marketplace: Feasibility and preliminary validation of a tool to experimentally study sugar-sweetened beverage taxes and beverage purchasing
Effects of a shared activities parenting intervention on weight outcomes in middle childhood: An exploratory study
The impact of a music enrichment program during infancy and early toddlerhood on effortful control at age 3: A preliminary investigation
Effortful control (EC), a self‐regulation skill, is associated with long‐term developmental outcomes. Music has been associated with infant self‐regulation and may be an intervention strategy for enhancing EC during toddlerhood. This investigation included 32 parent‐child dyads from a previously conducted randomized controlled trial (RCT). Participants (9‐15‐months old at baseline) attended either a music enrichment program or a playdate control …
A psychobioecological model to understand the income-food insecurity-obesity relationship
Play With Me: Effects of a shared activities parenting intervention on parenting and relative reinforcing value of food
Glucose response to sugar challenge moderates the effect of insulin resistance on reinforcing value of sugar-sweetened yogurt
Insulin Resistance and Glycated Hemoglobin in Obesity Are Associated With Preference for Sugar-Sweetened Yogurt: A Pilot Study
OBJECTIVE: Insulin resistance is associated with elevated activation of food reward, which should be associated with an increased reinforcing value of food. Research has also shown that sugar is a macronutrient strongly associated with reward and reinforcing value of food. This research is designed to assess whether insulin resistance is associated with a stronger preference for sugar-sweetened, thus elevating blood glucose responses in obese peo…
Parents, but not their children, demonstrate greater delay discounting with resource scarcity
These data suggest differences in how indicators of scarcity influence delay discounting for parents and children, indicating that adults with scarce resources may be shaped to focus on immediate needs instead of long-term goals. It is possible that parents can reduce the impact of economic scarcity on their children during preadolescent years. These findings suggest a need for policy change to alleviate the burden of scarce conditions and interv…
Feasibility and implementation of a grocery shopping intervention for adults diagnosed with or at-risk for type 2 diabetes
Objective: To examine the feasibility and implementation of an optimal defaults intervention designed to align grocery purchases with a diet recommended for people with or at-risk for type 2 diabetes. Design: This was a 5-week pilot randomised trial with three groups: in-person grocery shopping, shopping online and shopping online with ‘default’ carts. Participants were asked to shop normally in Week One, according to group assignment in Weeks Tw…
Effects of Episodic Memory Recall on Reinforcing Value of Physical Activity
This research demonstrates the impact of episodic memory on RRV PA , which could be leveraged to aid behavior change efforts
The Effect of Financial Scarcity on Reinforcer Pathology: A Dyadic Developmental Examination
This study investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated scarcity on the reinforcing value of food (RRVfood) and delay discounting (DD), which, together, create reinforcer pathology (RP) among parents and offspring. A stratified sample of 106 families (53 parent/child aged 7−10 dyads & 53 parent/adolescent aged 15−17 dyads) from high- and low-income households visited our laboratory for three appointments. Each appointment included an ex…
Food Reinforcement and Habituation to Food Are Processes Related to Initiation and Cessation of Eating
A story to tell: The role of narratives in reducing delay discounting for people who strongly discount the future
Delay Discounting (DD) or devaluing a future, larger reward in favour of a smaller, more immediate reward, has been linked to negative health behaviours. One intervention that reduces DD is Episodic Future Thinking (EFT). EFT has participants generate cues representing positive future events that correspond to temporal windows during the DD task. The current study examined if incorporating EFT cues into narratives would strengthen effects on DD. …
Constructing a Performance Measure of Future Time Orientation
Three studies present the development of the Scrambled Sentences Task for Future Time Orientation (SST-FTO), a performance measure of future time orientation. In Study 1, undergraduate research assistants rated a pool of 30 experimental items as delineating between future and present time orientations demonstrating the content validity of SST-FTO items. Study 2 established the convergent validity of the SST-FTO administered online showing perform…
Food Acquisition and Daily Life for U.S. Families with 4- to 8-Year-Old Children during Covid-19: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey
Evidence of short-term impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on family life is emerging. Continued research can shed light on potential longer-term impacts. An online survey of U.S. parents with 4- to 8-year-old children ( n = 1000) was administered in October 2020. The survey examined parent-reported impacts of COVID-19 on lifestyle (e.g., work, child-care, grocery shopping), as well as current family food acquisition and e…
Does Episodic Future Thinking Repair Immediacy Bias at Home and in the Laboratory in Patients With Prediabetes
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine if episodic future thinking (EFT) can decrease delay discounting (DD) among adults with prediabetes both in and out of the laboratory. DD measures how much the value of a reinforcer decreases as a function of the delay to receive it. METHODS: Adults with prediabetes (n = 67) completed a three-session study. At session 1, baseline measures (including DD) were collected. At sessions 2 and 3, participants wer…
Delay Discounting, Glycemic Regulation and Health Behaviors in Adults with Prediabetes
The majority of people with prediabetes transition to type 2 diabetes. Research has suggested that persons with type 2 diabetes are likely to discount the future and focus on immediate rewards. This study was designed to assess whether this process of delay discounting (DD) is associated with glycemic regulation, medication adherence and eating and exercise behaviors in adults with prediabetes. Participants included 81 adults with prediabetes who…
Mothers’ Dash diet adherence and food purchases after week-long episodic future thinking intervention
Development of a measure of the relative reinforcing value of food versus parent-child interaction for young children
Episodic future thinking and grocery shopping online
Do process simulations during episodic future thinking enhance the reduction of delay discounting for middle income participants and those living in poverty
Two studies examined whether episodic future thinking (EFT; pre-experiencing future events) reduces discounting of future rewards (DD). No studies have investigated whether process simulations (i.e., simulating the process of executing a future event) amplify EFT's reduction of DD. Study 1 examined the effect of incorporating process simulations into EFT ( N = 42, M age = 43.27; 91% female, family income = $75,976) using a 2 × 2 factorial design …
Less is more: Negative income shock increases immediate preference in cross commodity discounting and food demand
Dietary variety, energy regulation, and obesity
Increased variety in the food supply may contribute to the development and maintenance of obesity. Thirty-nine studies examining dietary variety, energy intake, and body composition are reviewed. Animal and human studies show that food consumption increases when there is more variety in a meal or diet and that greater dietary variety is associated with increased body weight and fat. A hypothesized mechanism for these findings is sensory-specific …
Food reinforcement and eating: A multilevel analysis
Eating represents a choice among many alternative behaviors. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of how food reinforcement and behavioral choice theory are related to eating and to show how this theoretical approach may help organize research on eating from molecular genetics through treatment and prevention of obesity. Special emphasis is placed on how food reinforcement and behavioral choice theory are relevant to understanding…
Reinforcing Value of Food in Obese and Non-obese Women
A behavioral economics analysis of food choice in humans
Delay discounting moderates the effect of food reinforcement on energy intake among non-obese women
Food reinforcement
The relative-reinforcing value of food under differing levels of food deprivation and restriction
Food reinforcement and parental obesity predict future weight gain in non-obese adolescents
The future is now: Comparing the effect of episodic future thinking on impulsivity in lean and obese individuals
Peer influence on pre-adolescent girls’ snack intake: Effects of weight status
Although most eating occurs in a social context, the effects of peer influence on child eating have not been the object of systematic experimental study. The present study assesses the effects of peer influence on lean and overweight pre-adolescent girls' snack intake as a function of the co-eaters' weight status. The weight status of the participants was varied by studying weight discordant dyads (i.e., one lean and one overweight participant) a…
Behavioral economic analysis of food choice in obese children
Food reinforcement and obesity. Psychological moderators
Influence of simplified nutrition labeling and taxation on laboratory energy intake in adults
Food Environment, Built Environment, and Women’s BMI: Evidence from Erie County, New York
The authors present the results of a neighborhood-scaled exploratory study that tests the association of the food environment and the built environment with women’s body mass index (BMI) in Erie County, New York. The proximity of women’s homes to a supermarket relative to a convenience store is associated with lower BMI. A diverse land use mix in a neighborhood is positively associated with women’s BMI, especially when restaurants dominate nonres…
Habituation of salivation and motivated responding for food in children
Does delay discounting play an etiological role in smoking or is it a consequence of smoking
Habituation and recovery of salivation and motivated responding for food in children
Habituation of responding for food in humans
Habituation of Facial Muscle Responses to Repeated Food Stimuli
Taste and food reinforcement in non-overweight youth
What constitutes food variety? Stimulus specificity of food
Relationship of mother and child food purchases as a function of price: A pilot study
Behavioral treatment of childhood obesity
Psychosocial Correlates of Shape and Weight Concerns in Overweight Pre-Adolescents
Binary components of food reinforcement: Amplitude and persistence
Modeling, Coffee Drinking, and Smoking
The relative effects of coffee and modeling on cigarette smoking were examined for 30 undergraduate smokers. Smoking rate was not significantly influenced by either coffee or modeling. These results are discussed in relation to previous research which has demonstrated effects for both variables
Effects of Acute Exercise and Cigarette Smoking on Autonomic and Neuromuscular Responses to a Cognitive Stressor
The effects of smoking and acute aerobic exercise as coping responses to stress were studied in 12 male sedentary smokers. Changes in heart rate, skin conductance, and electromyographic activity were assessed during the coping responses and a mental arithmetic stressor. Analysis showed smoking and exercise increased heart rate and skin conductance, while exercise reduced electromyographic activity. No reliable effects of the coping responses on h…
Psychologic stress and blood glucose levels in nondiabetic subjects
This study analyzed the effect of a standardized psychologic stressor on blood glucose levels in nondiabetic subjects. Subjects participated in a stress and nonstress session, presented in counterbalanced order. At each session, subjects were fed a carbohydrate load and blood glucose responses were measured 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 min after the load. On nonstress days, subjects relaxed after drinking the load, while on stress days subjects partici…
The effect of exercise on non-restricted caloric intake in male joggers
Behavioral self-regulation in the treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus
Behavioral treatment of childhood obesity
Perception of eating and exercise in children as a function of child and parent weight status
A behavioral economics analysis of food choice in humans
Behavioral economic analysis of food choice in obese children
Differences in Salivation to Repeated Food Cues in Obese and Nonobese Women
In a series of studies we have shown that salivation, a cephalic phase preingestive response, habituates to repeated presentations of olfactory or gustatory cues in nonobese subjects. Previous research has studied the differences in anticipatory response to food cues in obese vs. nonobese subjects. This study was designed to assess if obese and nonobese females differed in their patterns of salivary response to repeated presentation of palatable …
Reinforcing Value of Food in Obese and Non-obese Women
Differences in Salivary Habituation to Palatable Foods in Bulimia Nervosa Patients and Controls
OBJECTIVE: Bulimia nervosa (BN) patients have been shown to experience anomalous responses to food and food cues. We investigated the response to food over time by presenting repeated food cues and measuring changes in physiological (ie, salivation) and subjective responses. METHOD: Subjects were 18 BN women and 18 matched control women. Two palatable food stimuli, regular or frozen yogurt, that varied in macronutrient composition but had similar…
Habituation of Facial Muscle Responses to Repeated Food Stimuli
Long-term maintenance of weight loss: Current status.
Intervention strategies for promoting long-term weight loss are examined empirically and conceptually. Weight control research over the last 20 years has dramatically improved short-term treatment efficacy but has been less successful in improving long-term success. Interventions in preadolescent children show greater long-term efficacy than in adults. Extending treatment length and putting more emphasis on energy expenditure have modestly improv…
Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Decreasing Fat and Sugar Intake in Families at Risk for Childhood Obesity
Objective: The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of a parent‐focused behavioral intervention on parent and child eating changes and on percentage of overweight changes in families that contain at least one obese parent and a non‐obese child. Research Methods and Procedures: Families with obese parents and non‐obese children were randomized to groups in which parents were provided a comprehensive behavioral weight‐control program and w…
Dietary variety, energy regulation, and obesity
Increased variety in the food supply may contribute to the development and maintenance of obesity. Thirty-nine studies examining dietary variety, energy intake, and body composition are reviewed. Animal and human studies show that food consumption increases when there is more variety in a meal or diet and that greater dietary variety is associated with increased body weight and fat. A hypothesized mechanism for these findings is sensory-specific …
Dietary variety, energy regulation, and obesity
Habituation of responding for food in humans
Habituation of salivation and motivated responding for food in children
The relative-reinforcing value of food under differing levels of food deprivation and restriction
Craving and startle modification during in vivo exposure to food cues
Association of access to parks and recreational facilities with the physical activity of young children
Relationship of mother and child food purchases as a function of price: A pilot study
Habituation and recovery of salivation and motivated responding for food in children
Food reinforcement
Psychology (67 works) · Medicine (63 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (48 works) · Developmental psychology (43 works) · Eating Disorders and Behaviors (38 works) · Obesity (27 works) · Social Psychology (26 works) · Internal Medicine (25 works) · Reinforcement (19 works) · Biology (18 works)