Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Jul 1;24(7):1277-84. doi: 10.1177/0956797612471953. Epub 2013 May 30.
In recent years, people have tended to pay less attention to their meals, often consuming them while engaging in other activities. At the same time, foods have become increasingly sweet and salty. We therefore investigated how performing concurrent activities affects taste perception and how this relates to actual consumption. Participants tasted sour, sweet, and salty substances in various concentrations under differing task loads. Our results demonstrated that under high task load (relative to low task load), participants rated the substances as less intense, consumed more of the substances, and preferred stronger tastants. Our findings suggest that increased task load reduces people's taste perception by limiting attentional capacity to assess taste intensity and that people adjust their consumption accordingly.
近年来，人们往往不太注意饮食，经常在进行其他活动的同时进食。与此同时，食物也变得越来越甜和咸。因此，我们研究了同时进行的活动如何影响味觉感知，以及这与实际消费的关系。参与者在不同的任务负荷下品尝不同浓度的酸、甜、咸物质。我们的结果表明，在高任务负荷下（相对于低任务负荷），参与者对物质的评价较低，消耗的物质更多，更喜欢更强的味觉刺激物。我们的研究结果表明，增加任务负荷会通过限制评估味觉强度的注意力能力来降低人们的味觉感知，而人们会相应地调整他们的消费。
