Cog + Behaviour: Cognitive + Appetite Flashcards
Why is the psychobiological view of appetite not so great?
- eating a consequence of physiological processes monitoring nutrient status
- BUT cannot explain
- -> over-eating + rise in obesity
- -> eating disorders
What cognitive processes are implicated in eating?
- Memory
- Attention
- Decision making
- Learning
- Perception
What are the different cognitive theories of susceptibility to overeat?
- Externality theory
- Restraint theory
- Emotional eating
How does the externality theory explain susceptibility to over eat?
- dependent on the extent to which internal + external signals motivate a person to eat
- obese = more response to external (more cognitively controlled) signals vs physiological (internal)
How does the restraint theory explain susceptibility to over eat?
- ppl use cognitive processes to restrict their intake due to weight concerns
- restriction = overeating when dietary restraint breaks down
How does the emotional eating theory explain susceptibility to over eat?
- occurs in response to negative emotions in an attempt to distract attention from, or alleviate these feelings
What are the different ways of measuring food related-attention - attentional bias for food cue ?
- Dot-probe task: food
= faster RT when probe + food cue are in same location - Food stroop task
= slower colour-naming time for food related items compared w/ neutral stimuli
What cognitive-biological interaction has been found regarding attentional bias for food cue?
- stronger bias when healthy volunteers were tested when hungry
- BUT this hunger-enhanced food bias was not found in obese ppt = gave attention to food regardless of them being hungry
Attentional bias for food-related cues have been found in?
- obese adults
- obese children
- healthy-weight adults + dietary restrictive
- Healthy-w a + emotional eaters
- H-W a + external eaters
- bulimic + anorexic patients
How could we reduce eating by modifying attention?
- mindfulness
- -> help to control impulsive response to food cues
Why are DECISIONS about how much we serve ourselves matter?
- plate cleaning occurs in 91% of means; Fay et al, 2011
- need to understand how we make decisions on portion size
Increasing portion size increases our intake by how much?
- 70/80% in come cases
How important are visual cues in deciding portion size?
- ppt ate soup from a bowl w/ hidden supply tube either with self-filling, static or self-emptying conditions
= how full they felt after 2/3 hrs was influenced by what they thought they has consumed vs actual consumption
What expectations influence portion size selection?
- based on how filling something will be
- EXPECTED fillingness of food
- EXPECTED liking
- Food utility
- -> what is the MAX you would pay for this food?
Why is it important to make sure the child LEARNS to establish a good range of flavour preferences in childhood?
- will track into adulthood
- born w/ innate liking for sweet + disliking for bitter but all other preferences learnt
- Parental flavour learning; Mennella et al
- -> carrots
What expectations about the food can alter liking and perception of a food?
- sensory qualities of a food
1. Assimilation theory
2. Contract effect
What is the assimilation theory?
- expected + sensory xp COMBINE
- if actual sensory xp closer to expected than is SEEN when the food is evaluated without prior expectations
- -> same soup, different labels
What is the contract effect?
- occurs when the expected + sensed xp = very different = decrease in rated quality of food
- -> smoked salmon looking ice-cream vs “normal” ice-cream = oo interesting flavour vs yuck!
What explanation is there for why variety influences liking of food?
- Sensory Specific Satiety (SSS) decreases in palatability of recently eaten food
- due to habituation of sensory properties?
- could explain why you are “sick” of one food but have space of desserts!
- -> different coloured smarties vs all the same colour
What could the role of sensory specific satiety be in obesity?
- evidence obese ppl show no within mean decrease in palatability for eaten foods while STILL desiring other foods
- Obesegenic environment
What is an obesegenic environment?
- environment full of different types of food = keep renewing desire for food
In what ways can we modify perceptions to reduce obesity?
- establish healthy eating in childhood
- Change eating environment; plate size
- Increase expectations that foods will be filling so small portions are chosen
- Regulate advertising of high fat sugar-foods (assimilation effect)
- Decrease variety (SSS)
- Make all food taste the same (SSS!!)
Is MEMORY of a recent meal an important influence on how much is consumed at the next eating episode?
- Higgs et al - Healthy ppt
–> asked to think about lunch eaten today or yesterday or anything
–> given bogus task: Measured SNACK intake
= thinking about food halved the number of biscuits eater
= did not influence food liking - 24, 48, 44g snacks
- 64, 64, 60 liking of snacks
Amnesiac patients: What did hebben et al in 1985 find about the number of meals an amnesic patient would have?
- multiple meals cuz they forgot they had eaten already
= Memory important in how much they ate in next meal
Amnesiac patients: What did Higgs et al in 2008 find about amnesiac patients and their ability to differentiate between foods of different sweetness?
- could differentiate between food of different sweetness
= Memory of recent eating is not involved in perception of taste
Amnesiac patients: What did Higgs et al in 2008 find about control and amnesiac’s SSS response?
- liking of recently eaten food declined in both control + amnesic patients = no deficit in SSS response
= HABITUATION to sensory properties of recently eaten food (NOT memory) = reduces desire to eat food
How is distracted eating, memory and overeating related?
- disrupting encoding (distracted eating) of memories while eating = overeating at the next meal
- -> memory of meal less accurate = increased food intake for next meal
Sedentary activities such as TV viewing are associated w/ obesity but what assumption is not quite correct about it?
- assume = obesity due to reduced energy expenditure BUT
= TV viewing only a mediating factor of fatness
= MORE likely due to an effect on food intake
Obesity interventions applying the findings might aim to enhance meal memory by…
- increasing attention to experience of eating
- slowing down eating rate
- discouraging distractors while eating
