My research is aimed at the cognitive psychology of eating, on why people eat what they eat. In a recent project, together with my colleagues we study why some children are very picky and others easy eaters. We focus on several cognitive aspects, including what a child thinks, expects, or feels when encountering foods. An example is the role of tactile perception of foods, which can be a reason for food rejection. Children who are more sensitive to tactile perception, appear to be pickier in eating. Can you help them in accepting foods by exposure to difficult textures? And perhaps cognitive biases play a role in picky eating: Do picky eaters have a better memory for unpleasant tastes, or look more for confirming information for their negative assumptions about food, compared to the easy eaters? We hope to find some answers and learn how we can make vegetables more attractive.

While we don’t eat enough vegetables, we do eat too much high caloric snacks. I am interested in the role of our environment, in combination with self-control, stress or emotions. And I am very curious on the role of boredom, which seems to make us vulnerable for all kinds of temptations.

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