An Evaluation of Sequential Meal Presentation with Picky Eaters
Make the preferred bite the prize, not the opener.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Whelan et al. (2019) tested picky eaters in a clinic.
They tried two ways to serve food.
First, they gave a bite of the liked food before the disliked food.
Second, they let the child eat the liked food only after swallowing the disliked bite.
They measured how many bites of the disliked food the child ate.
What they found
Kids ate the disliked food only when the liked food came after.
Free bites of the liked food first did nothing.
The reinforcer had to be earned.
How this fits with other research
Davis et al. (2023) later tried the same earned-bite rule in a preschool class.
They also compared simultaneous plates.
Sequential still won, showing the rule works at school without escape extinction.
Meier et al. (2012) and Penrod et al. (2012) used high-probability food first, but they gave it free.
Whelan’s team shows that free bites are not enough; the bite must be contingent.
Ahearn (2003) used condiments mixed with veggies and saw gains, yet that was simultaneous, not sequential.
The new rule refines the older antecedent tricks by adding a clear if-then contract.
Why it matters
You can drop the appetizer tray.
Put the chicken nugget, chip, or fruit snack behind the pea bite.
State the rule: “First pea, then nugget.”
Deliver the nugget only after the pea is swallowed.
Watch intake rise without force or tears.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Results of previous research evaluating sequential presentation of nonpreferred (NP) and high-preferred (HP) foods have been mixed, and little is known about how preferences for foods and the manner in which they are presented impact consumption. In many households, NP and HP foods are presented together on the same plate (total meal presentation). This was true for the participants included in this study; thus, total meal presentation served as a baseline against which to compare the effects of an appetizer presentation method and subsequently sequential presentation (differential reinforcement). Results demonstrated that presenting NP foods as an appetizer was not successful in increasing consumption. Consumption only increased after HP foods were made contingent on consumption of the NP food.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s40617-018-00277-7