Psychology of Food/Eating Terms

Question 1

Metabolic/Homeostatic Hunger

Answer 1

driven by physiological necessity, feel full due to peripheral/ central factors

Eg. Food in GI tract would decrease metabolic hunger

Question 2

Hedonic Hunger

Answer 2

eating for the sake of pleasure; a powerful desire for food in the absence of any need for it

Question 3

Orthonasal

Answer 3

olfactory route via external nares, ie. nostrils

Question 4

Retronasal

Answer 4

olfactory route vis back of the mouth through nasopharynx, more difficult to use this route to identify food

Question 5

Gastrophysics

Answer 5

scientific study of factors affecting our multisensory experience of food and drink; combines gastronomy and psychophysics.

Ie. temperature, taste/smell interactions, colour, texture, sound affecting flavour perception

Question 6

Chemesthesis

Answer 6

sensations of irritation or ‘burn’ that arise when chemical compounds in foods activate receptor mechanisms for pain, touch, or thermal perception. Irritants cause sensitization (increasing irritation and pain in short term)

Eg. capsaicin from chili pepper, menthol in mouthwash

Question 7

Hedonic Response

Answer 7

affective (pleasure) response to foods or their components, liking of a food increases chewing/swallowing rates. Knowing food was prepared just for you makes it taste better

Preference for sweet taste are under opioid control: opioid agonists increase, whereas antagonists decrease, preferences for sweet taste in humans

Question 8

Hedonic Optimum

Answer 8

best concentration of a substance in a particular food or beverage, differs among food/cultures but generally has an inverted-U shape with increasing concentration. Must be expected (in appropriate context)

Eg. perfect amount of salt on pasta

Question 9

Genetics

Answer 9

some tastes inherently preferred, some inherently disliked.

Sweet: preference for sweet is stronger than any other taste, sweet foods contain sugar, high in calories, high in energy, newborn babies suck sugary pacifiers more

Salt: strong preference also exists for salty tastes, salt is required for regulating body’s fluid balance, newborns do not appear capable of detecting salty tastes

Bitter: not preferred, supertasters (people who more sensitive to bitter compounds in foods including coffee, grapefruit, beer), correlated with increased number and density of certain papillae on tongue containing taste buds

Question 10

Environment

Answer 10

effects of experience and social factors on taste

Familiarity, conditioned taste aversion, medicine effect, flavour-flavour learning, flavour-nutrient learning, dessert effect, social factors, culture/cuisine

Question 11

Mere-exposure effect (familiarity)

Answer 11

with repeated exposure new foods will be accepted. Only occurs when food actually ingested. Occurs due to learned safety (injested without negative consequences). Infants need minimum 8-10 exposures, 12-15 has clear increase in acceptance

Eg. exposing children to novel fruits (lychee, papaya) 8-10 times increased preferences

Question 12

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA)

Answer 12

tastes previously associated with negative postingestive consequences (nausea or vomiting) are avoided. Adaptive response to potentially dangerous toxins.

4 types of food aversions: distasteful, dangerous, inappropriate, disgusting

Question 13

Distasteful

Answer 13

aversive taste, smell or texture in food

Eg. room-temp milk

Question 14

Dangerous

Answer 14

food we reject because of reputed/anticipated negative consequences

Eg. poisonous mushrooms

Question 15

Medicine Effect

Answer 15

foods associated with recovery from illness may become preferred

Question 15

Inappropriate

Answer 15

considered inedible/minimal nutritive value
Eg. tree bark

Question 15

Digusting

Answer 15

considered offensive, rejected both on ideational and sensory ground
Eg. urine

Question 16

Flavour-Flavour Learning

Answer 16

pairing novel taste/flavour with a preferred one increases preference for it,

Eg. people given unfamiliar herbal teas, some sweetened others unsweetened: preference for sweetened tea increased (even when presented unsweetened)

Question 17

Flavour-Nutrient Learning

Answer 17

tastes associated with higher calories are preferred

Question 18

Dessert Effect

Answer 18

eating dessert at the end of a meal increases preference for the sweet taste of dessert,

rewarding a child for eating spinach with a dessert will not increase preference for spinach but will increase preference for dessert

following a particular meal (potatoes), rats given dessert (sucrose) decreased preference for potatoes. Flavor of sucrose is more closely associated with the postingestive consequence of potatoes than flavour of potatoes.

Question 19

Consumption Norms

Answer 19

mediating factor of food consumption volume. aspects of the environment influence the quantity of food that is acceptable to consume.

Eg. package size or eating behaviour of your dinner companion
Wansink,van Ittersum, Painter (2006): participants were 85 food/nutrition experts attending an ice cream social. Randomly received 17 oz or 34 oz bowl and served themselves ice cream. Filled out a survey estimating the amount of ice cream they took while bowls secretly weighed. Those who used larger bowl ate 31% more, did not perceive they ate more with larger bowls

Question 20

Consumption Monitoring

Answer 20

mediating factor of food consumption volume. Monitoring food consumption helps reduce discrepancies between perceived and actual consumption amounts. Food choice may be emphasized to the neglect of food quantity (eating whole package of low-fat cookies)

Eg. paying attention to amount eaten vs eating until all the food is gone
Wansink, Painter, North (2005): served tomato soup in bowls continuously refilled via hidden tubes, people ate 250mL from normal bowls but ate 435 mL from refilled bowls (73% more, did not believe they consumed more, did not feel more full), visual cues affect consumption more than feeling full

Question 21

Atmospherics

Answer 21

ambient characteristics that influence the eating environment

Eg. dimmed/soft lighting increases comfort/eating duration, leads to greater consumption

Eg. unpleasant odours shorten meal duration / food consumption

Eg. soft music encourages slower eating rate, longer meal duration and greater consumption. loud/uncomfortable music can cause quicker eating and less consumption monitoring

Question 22

Effort

Answer 22

ease, access or convenience with which food can be consumed

Eg. Painter, Wansink, Heiggelke (2002): secretaries given dishes containing 30 Hershey’s kissed, refilled every evening for 3 weeks.

Put dish a) in desk drawer (not visible/convenient), b) on desk (visible/convenient) c) on shelf 2 m away (visible/incovenient).

Those with candies on their desk ate average of 5.6 more/day than those with candies on the shelf.

Overestimated on desk consumption by 13%, underestimated on shelf consumption by 63%. Easier access to food increases consumption

Question 23

Social Facilitation

Answer 23

presence of others influences what is eaten, increases the amount

Eg. de Castro, Brewer (1992): found dramatic link between number of dining companions and consumption, meals eaten with another person were 33% larger than meals eaten alone. Less variability in amount consumed as number of companions increases. Only works if you are with people you know, when eating with a stranger the effects disappear

Question 24

Distractions/Attention

Answer 24

can initiate ‘scripted’ patterns of food consumption; can reduce monitoring; can extend meal duration

Robinson et al. (2013): people snack more while watching TV even if not physically hungry

Eg. patients with amnesia who were told it was dinnertime ate a second complete meal only 10-30 min after having eaten a meal

Wansink/Park (2001): gave free popcorn to moviegoers in Chicago, more attention paid to movie = more popcorn was eaten, people ate more if accompanied by a person of the opposite sex

Question 25

Labels

Answer 25

choice of terms used to describe food can frame different attributes, affecting consumption

Eg. Turnwald et al. (2019): university dining halls displayed one of three kinds of labels for identical vegetable dishes: health focused label (healthy choice turnips), basic label (turnips), taste focused label (Herb n Honey Balsamic glazed turnips).

Taste focused labels: increased perception of tastiness, increased selection by 14-29%, increased consumption by 39%

Question 26

Salience

Answer 26

seeing (or smelling) a food can increas e hunger and can stimulate unplanned consumption

Eg. people asked to write a description of the last time they ate soup increased their consumption of canned soup (ate 2.4 times more than control group)

Question 27

Variety/ Structure

Answer 27

(perceived) variety can make one believe they will enjoy the assortment more, may suggest an appropriate amount to eat; “organization’ of food also affects consumption

Eg. if offered three kinds of yogurt people eat 23% more than if offered only one flavour

Kahn/Wansink (2004): Study A: gave people 300 M&Ms while watching Hazzard County, those given bowel with 7 colours ate 64, those given 10 colours ate 91 (43% more). Study B: gave people 300 jelly beans in six flavors, those given organized assortment ate 13, those given

Question 28

Size of Packge/Proportions

Answer 28

as package size increases so does consumption - even when the energy density of the food is altered to compensate (volume is a better indicator of “fullness” than calorie density food), larger packages suggest larger consumption norms

Eg. Wansink / Kim (2005): gave free popcorn to moviegoers, bucket was medium (120g) or large (240g), popcorn was fresh or stale (14 days old). Fresh popcorn: 45.3% more eaten when given in large container. Stale popcorn: 33.6% more eaten from large container. Package size can influence consumption of unfavorable foods

Question 29

Stockpiled Food

Answer 29

“warehouse”- sized food takes up much space and is highly salient

Eg. Chandon / Wansink (2002): stocked people’s houses with eight different food (eg. juice/granola (ready to eat); oatmeal/noodles (need to prepare)), given moderate (4) or large quantities (12), monitored consumption over 2 weeks, stockpiled convenient ready-to-eat foods were eaten at twice the rate of non stockpiled foods

Question 30

Serving Containers

Answer 30

container may act as a perceptual cue influencing consumption; over 71% of one’s caloric intake is consumed using serving aids

Eg. Wansink / Van Ittersum (2012): surface area of average dinner plate has increased 36% since 1960. People serve themselves 25% more on a 12 inch plate than on a 10 inch plate. Overserving decreased if attention drawn to Delboeuf illusion. Overserving effect is enhanced if there is: low contrast between food colour/plate colour, high contrast between plate coour and tablecloth colour