An auxiliary device for chopsticks operation to improve the food-serving performance

Chopsticks are popular dining utensils in many Asian countries. It is well recognized that the pincers-pinching mode has been recommended for chopsticks operation for Chinese dining. The objective of this study was to propose an auxiliary device for transferring the subjects who had experienced scissors pinching to that of pincers pinching. A total of 30 male university students who used scissors pinching daily were recruited for the experiment. Subjects were requested to perform four simulated food-serving tasks under four different pinching stages. An additional testing was also performed for validation purpose. Results showed that the subjects had a better performance of food serving by the pincers-pinching method than by the scissors-pinching method, after familiarizing themselves with pincers pinching with the assistance of an auxiliary for 1 h. Because of the relatively shorter transferring time (1 h), the subjects still evaluated scissors pinching as their preferable ones. We suggested that this new auxiliary device could be used to teach or correct the chopsticks operation of people who are naive/children and are interested in chopsticks use or experienced in chopsticks scissors pinching. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.