Cognition and appetite

Question 1

Why, sensory wise, do we enjoy food?

Answer 1

All our senses are engaged

Question 2

What are the five cognitive processes implicated in eating?

Answer 2

1. Memory
2. Attention
3. Decision making
4. Learning
5. Perception

Question 3

What are the three cognitive theories of susceptibility to overeat?

Answer 3

1. Externality theory (extent to which internal and external signals motivate to eat)
2. Restraint theory (cognitive processes used to restrict intake because of weight concerns, leads to overeating when dietary restraint breaks down)
3. Emotional eating (occurs in response to negative emotions in attempt to distract attention from feelings)

Question 4

What is one way to measure food-related attention?

Answer 4

Food dot probe task

Question 5

Food-related biases are reliably associated with what four things?

Answer 5

1. Hunger state
2. Food intake
3. Food craving
4. Certain eating disorders

Question 6

What are two possible implications for appetite control?

Answer 6

1. Inattention while eating could promote overconsumption
2. Inattention between meals may lead to poor awareness of interoceptive (bodily cues) relating to appetite

Question 7

All flavour preferences are learnt other than what two things?

Answer 7

Innate liking for sweet and disliking for bitter

Question 8

Mennella et al (1995) found what about prenatal flavour learning?

Answer 8

Babies who liked carrot flavour most were ones whose mothers drank carrot juice when they were pregnant

Question 9

What is the assimilation theory?

Answer 9

Expected and sensed sensory experiences combine so the actual evaluation of the food is closer to the expectations than is seen when the food is evaluated without any prior expectations (how much pts enjoyed soup depended on label)

Question 10

What is the contrast effect?

Answer 10

Occurs when expected and sensed sensory experience are very different resulting in decrease in rated quality of food

Question 11

What is meant by sensory specific satiety?

Answer 11

Decrease in palatability of recently eaten food. Because of habituation to sensory properties of just eaten food

Question 12

How does sensory specific satiety link to obesity?

Answer 12

Evidence that obese people show no within meal decrease in palatability for eaten foods while also still desiring other foods

Question 13

What did Higgs et al find when pts were asked to recall what they had eaten for lunch that day?

Answer 13

Being asked to recall what you ate for lunch reliably reduced short term food intake, reduces intake at next eating episode

Question 14

How many lunches HM eat before he reported feeling full?

Answer 14

On 4th lunch said he didn’t feel hungry