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RESEARCH PRODUCT

A categorization and executive functions approach of food rejection in young children

subject

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Food neophobia and pickiness are two strong psychological obstacles to young children’s consumption of fruits and vegetables, which are necessary components of a diet that facilitates normal and healthy development. It is therefore of critical importance to investigate the cognitive underpinnings of these two kinds of food rejection to promote the adoption of healthy eating behaviors. Food acceptance and rejection appear to be partly conditioned by children’s knowledge of the food domain. Knowledge allows children to recognize a given food, categorize it, and make inference-based decisions on its properties and possible consequences of consumption. Underdeveloped knowledge may cause food stimuli or situations to appear uncertain. Uncertainty will increase the likelihood of food being rejected, regardless if it is edible or previously accepted under another method of preparation. To tackle food rejection, interventions had, thus, aimed to increase children’s familiarity and knowledge through educational-based programs or repeated exposures to target foods.However, despite overall successes, such interventions had limited benefits for highly neophobic and picky children. High levels of food rejection have been associated with strong emotional and physiological responses, similar to reactions found in phobias. This fear may inhibit children’s learning ability. Consequently, neophobic and picky children may be unable to develop their knowledge of the food domain. Previous evidence, indeed, demonstrated that children’s food rejection was inversely related to their knowledge of food categories.In this context, the first objective of the present thesis was to investigate the twofold driver of food rejection: the gaps in food knowledge and the fear-conditioned withdrawal strategies in uncertain food situations. The food processing variable was also manipulated to test the hypothesis that children could rely on visual cues such as slicing to overcome their fear. The results revealed that food rejection was related to decreased categorization performance and heightened caution. Neophobic and picky children over-executed caution and, compared to their more neophilic and less picky counterparts, did not rely upon the variable of food processing as a safety cue. To develop the knowledge of children with high food rejection, it might be first necessary to overcome their fear of the learning situation.The second objective was to investigate whether executive functions (i.e., working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility) were implicated in food rejection. Underdeveloped executive functions would explain neophobic and picky children’s difficulties to extract information from food-related learning opportunities, rigid behaviors toward dietary variety or meal preparations, and appropriate use of previous knowledge. This investigation revealed negative relations between food rejection and executive functions, more precisely decreased inhibition and cognitive flexibility in highly neophobic and picky children. Cognitive flexibility was also found to mediate the relationship between food rejection and categorization abilities. The results add to the body of evidence that executive functions play an important role in food-related behaviors.The thesis contributes to the understanding of the development of food rejection in young children and sheds light on different factors influencing children’s learning ability in the food domain. This contribution is valuable for our understanding of neophobic and picky children’s difficulties to learn and to act appropriately about foods and the development of interventions aiming at improving their eating habits.