NWO Vici grant for Prof. Chantal (Sjaan) Nederkoorn
Prof. Chantal (Sjaan) Nederkoorn of the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience (FPN) obtained the coveted NWO Vici grant. The upcoming 5 years, she will use this grant to research why kids (between 3-5 years old) sometimes refuse food. Children even refuse food that they have never tried before. Nederkoorn wants to discover which cognitive processes are at play, and whether these processes can be influenced.
“Until they are 1 year old, children are relatively easy. They eat almost everything that is offered. From age 2 or 3, the trouble starts. Children often start to refuse food, even if they’ve never had it before. And it’s not always clear why”. There has been a lot of research on how parenting style influences this behaviour. But not yet on what is going on inside the mind of the child, how the child makes decisions. “Often children are wrong, they decide something tastes bad, but when they have to eat it, it turns out to be pretty good”. There are a number of factors at play that Nederkoorn will be looking at.
The sensory factor
It’s well known that children don’t like bitter foods. Texture also plays an important role. Mushrooms are very slippery, which can be another reason for dislike. “Do children who are sensitive to textures in general, also refuse certain food more often?
The expectation factor
The expectation of the child is also important, how the child thinks the food will taste. Inductive reasoning means that you make conclusions based on the categories you make. A toddler may think: the food is red, so it belongs to the category red food, just like candy and strawberries, so it must be sweet. It can be quite a disappointment when biting into a red radish. A child can also think: this food belongs to the category vegetables, which are often a bit bitter. Then the expectation and experience will match better and this will increase the liking of the radish. “The question I want to ask is: are the expectations of a taste based on categorisation?”.
Risk factor
Some children have an innate tendency to take risks, other are more careful. “I expect to find that the risktakers will try something unfamiliar more easily and are less picky”. Children that are more careful could be thinking “this may taste bad”.
The bias factor
A bias in how we perceive the world around us, often plays a role in fear. “For example, when you’re afraid of a dog, you’ll focus your attention on dogs, and you’ll look for confirmation that your fear is justified”. This focus on fear, can make you more fearful. “If you only pay attention to the news articles dog bites child, you’re confirming your own fear”. Nederkoorn thinks this process can be the same for food. “You see, he also doesn’t like it. And children then don’t see the 10 classmates who do like the food”.
Can we change?
The next step in the research is to find out if these factors can be influenced. Can we, for example, let children get used to the texture of a mushroom, by first letting them feel it with their hands? Can we learn children to make better predictions of taste by thinking in terms of vegetable instead of red. “We’re going to do a number of experiments, that will reveal if we can change these behaviours”.
Getting a Vici
The Vici grant is meant for senior researchers who can develop their own research line. It gives them the possibility to build their own research group. “The next 5 years, I will be able to devote all my attention to this subject, together with 4 young researchers. For a researcher, there’s nothing better!”.
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