Hetherington, MM orcid.org/0000-0001-8677-5234 and Rolls, BJ (2018) Favouring more rigour when investigating human eating behaviour is like supporting motherhood and apple pie: A Response to Robinson, Bevelander, Field, and Jones (2018). Appetite, 130. pp. 330-333. ISSN 0195-6663
Abstract
In a 1987 paper, addressing questions about factors that influence the initiation, maintenance, and termination of food intake, we wrote, “development of systematic procedures to measure eating behaviour is essential if descriptive and inferential statistics are to be applied to answering such questions, giving them power and replicability” (Hetherington & Rolls, 1987 page 77). Therefore, as longstanding advocates of rigorous procedures in laboratory-based investigations of food intake, we welcome Robinson et al.’s (2018) clear recommendations for laboratory studies. However, this is akin to voting for “motherhood and apple pie”, and few would argue against deployment of improved procedures for these studies. What then can we contribute to the debate in order to refine the recommendations made or add to them? Our most important message for researchers is that the central hypothesis or main research question will determine the most appropriate methods for any study. If a laboratory-based study is planned, then there are basic methodological questions that must be answered before proceeding to a final protocol. While such guidelines are needed to ensure basic methodological rigour, these should not be so prescriptive as to inhibit creativity. Here we provide several thoughts on how to advance studies of ingestive behaviour, including the need to apply appropriate controls, encouragement to move beyond convenience samples, and to remember the value of exploratory, observational, and naturalistic studies to complement laboratory-based studies.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Appetite. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Aug 2018 12:51 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jun 2019 00:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.appet.2018.05.013 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:134416 |
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