Children's Eating Behavior Laboratory

As we continue to give out our "Spring Flowers", we would like to highlight Alyssa Ching, and her contributions to the lab!

Alyssa has been "in the zone" this semester, routinely coming to the lab in a positive mind frame and doing exceptional work.

She has quickly become an outstanding Child Research assistant, working and communicating effectively with the kids and their parents.

She also helps on the data end, often spot checking other video coders, and helping with our data entry.

Thank you, Alyssa!

Lauren has been a member of our lab since she was an undergraduate! Now, even as she spends time at Indiana University studying Dentistry, she still makes room for helping our lab!

In our lab, many of our experiments are video recorded to measure the rate of consumption of meals, as well as how the meal is consumed.

Lauren has been instrumental in the coding of these videos so that our scientists can make sense of the data!

Giving some digital "flowers" to some of our best Research Assistants!

Samantha has been a stalwart for our lab for over 2 years.

She has shown a great ability to work with her peers, her supervisors, and most importantly, the kids who come in for our experiments.

Her even tone and temperament is an excellent asset for our team.

Samantha is someone our lab depends on, and she always delivers!

https://www.psu.edu/news/health-and-human-development/story/newly-named-child-health-research-center-advance-health-children

Newly named Child Health Research Center to advance health of children, families | Penn State University Recognizing the interconnectedness of children’s physical, mental and emotional health, the Center for Childhood Obesity Research has been reimagined and renamed the Child Health Research Center to reflect a broader range of child health research initiatives committed to improving child health and...

From our colleagues!

Variety: Spice of life or risk factor for overeating? | Penn State University People selected more food at a virtual reality buffet when there were more food options, demonstrating how food variety may drive overeating, according to a new study by researchers in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences.

Whenever we take first year students like Jocelyn, one of the things we are looking for is a level of enthusiasm and willingness to spend time in the lab.

Jocelyn routinely has come to the lab with purpose and intent to grow and get better.

She approaches new tasks not with trepidation, but rather a sense of eagerness and 'want to'.

Thank you for all of your efforts, Jocelyn!

As we go into our Spring Break at Penn State, our lab would like to hand out some 'flowers' to some of our Research Assistants!

Ashmit has been incredibly valuable stepping in on short notice when other team members get sick or have more school work than normal and can't execute visits.

His positive attitude is fantastic to be around. He has always been an optimist in our lab and his contributions have enabled our projects to remain on schedule.

Thank you Ashmit!

We've always known kids can be picky.

We are hoping to find the underpinnings as to why, and if we can assist in improving decision making. Some of the results have been promising!

If you want to know what we do and why; then this article is a great introduction!

Picky eating starts in the womb – a nutritional neuroscientist explains how to expand your child’s palate While genes do influence some food preferences, positive experiences can help make new tastes easier to swallow.

Yashaswini Rajendra Bhat helped develop a potential AI system to help the field code the bites and sips a nutritional study meal.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2025.1610363/full

Rachel has recently come on board has a PhD tracked Nutritional Science student!

Her energy and attitude has been exactly what our team is looking for in our students!

She has already started working with our subjects as a child researcher and shows great promise in the field.

Over the past Fall Semester, Leah Johnson has become an invaluable part of our team! She quickly took took to different aspects of our studies and has routinely accomplished her assignments in a timely fashion while having a great attitude.

Thank you for all that you contribute to our team, Leah!