Food satiation is probably partly a learned association. When naïve
subjects were asked in our pilot studies to rate how satiating a liquid
and semi-solid food would be based on a single bite, the responses
indicated that subjects anticipated the semi-solid food to be more
satiating than the liquid. The anticipated higher degree of satiation
may have resulted in the smaller bite sizes for the semi-solid when
both foods were sipped through a straw. The fact that smaller bite
sizes are in fact relatively more satiating than larger ones makes the
anticipated higher degree of satiation a self- fullfilling prophecy.