Located the Nutrition for a Lifetime System (NLS-1), a prototype interactive information system, in a large supermarket to help users decrease high-fat food purchases and increase high-fiber food purchases. Study participants were randomly assigned to control (n = 23; used the NLS-1 to enter food purchases only) or experimental (n = 26; viewed videodisc instructional programs, received prompts, made commitments, received feedback from the NLS-1) conditions. According to data entered in the NLS-1 and actual food shopping receipts, experimental participants significantly reduced higher fat purchases. Increases in higher fiber purchases favored the experimental group but were not significant.

This study reports the results of one effort to help supermarket shoppers alter food purchases to make purchases (and meals) that are lower in fat and higher in fiber. A prototype interactive information system using instructional video programs, feedback on purchases with specific goals for change, weekly programs, and the ability to track user interactions and intended purchases was evaluated. The major dependent measure was users' actual food purchases as derived from participants' highly detailed supermarket receipts. After a 5- to 7-week baseline phase, participants were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition for the 7- to 8-week intervention phase. A follow-up phase began 5 to 8 weeks after participants completed the intervention and discontinued use of the system. The results indicated that experimental participants, when compared to control participants, decreased high fat purchases and increased high fiber purchases during intervention, with evidence for some maintenance of effect in follow-up. Plans for increasing the use and impact of the system are discussed.

Evidence increasingly links a high-fat, low-fiber diet to coronary heart disease and certain site cancers, indicating a need for large-scale dietary change. Studies showing the effectiveness of particular procedures in specific settings are important at this point. The present study, using an A-B-A-B design and sales data from computerized cash registers, replicated and extended previous work by showing that inexpensive prompts (i.e., signs and fliers) in a national fast-food restaurant could increase the sales of salads, a low-fat, high-fiber menu selection. Suggestions also are made pertinent to more widespread use of the procedures.

Thirteen boys with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) completed 80 arithmetic problems presented on a computer screen by typing a two digit answer. On half the trials, a foot press was required to terminate a computer-generated tone presented 2 seconds before, 1 second before, 1 second after, and 2 seconds after arithmetic problem presentation. Compared to placebo, methylphenidate resulted in significantly faster reaction times (RTs) to tone probes and faster answers to arithmetic problems when the two tasks did not overlap in time, but not when simultaneous processing was required when the probe was presented 2 seconds after arithmetic problems. When dual processing taxed cognitive capacity, methylphenidate still improved accuracy on the primary arithmetic task relative to placebo, but at the expense of speed of performance on the secondary RT task. When ADHD children fail to allocate available resources to a primary cognitive task, treatment with methylphenidate may result in reallocation of existing cognitive capacity from a secondary task to the primary task.

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