“Clean up your plate”: Effects of child feeding practices on the conditioning of meal size

Abstract

To obtain information on the development of the learned control of food intake, preschool children ( N = 22) participated in conditioning and extinction trials to determine whether meal size could be conditioned. Each trial consisted of a two-part snack in which consumption of a fixed amount of a distinctively flavored high (145 kcal) or low (60 kcal) caloric density preload was followed by ad lib consumption of snacks. Following the pairs of conditioning trials, extinction test trials were given in which the flavors previously paired with either high or low caloric density were presented in intermediate, isocaloric preloads. Conditioning occurred in one of two child feeding contexts: one that focused children on internal cues of hunger and satiety, or one that focused the children on external cues, including the amount of food remaining on the plate. The external group also could receive rewards for eating. Only the children in the internal context showed evidence of responsiveness to caloric density cues and associative conditioning, eating more ad lib following the low-density preload than following the high density preload during conditioning, and eating more during extinction following the flavor previously paired with low caloric density. Children in the external context showed no evidence of responsiveness to caloric density cues, but increased in ad lib consumption across the conditioning trials.