Kemps Eva, Tiggemann Marika, Orr Jenna, Grear Justine
School of Psychology, Flinders University.
J Exp Psychol Appl. 2014 Mar;20(1):94-102. doi: 10.1037/xap0000005. Epub 2013 Sep 30.
There is emerging evidence that attentional biases are related to the consumption of substances such as alcohol and tobacco, and that attentional bias modification can reduce unwanted consumption of these substances. We present evidence for the first time to our knowledge that the same logical argument applies in the food and eating domain. We conducted two experiments that used a modified dot probe paradigm to train undergraduate women to direct their attention toward ("attend") or away from ("avoid") food cues (i.e., pictures of chocolate). In Experiment 1, attentional bias for chocolate cues increased in the "attend" group, and decreased in the "avoid" group. Experiment 2 showed that these training effects generalized to novel, previously unseen chocolate pictures. Importantly, attentional retraining affected chocolate consumption and craving. In both experiments, participants in the "avoid" group ate less chocolate in a so-called taste test than did those in the "attend" group. In addition, in Experiment 2, but not in Experiment 1, the "attend" group reported stronger chocolate cravings following training, whereas the "avoid" group reported less intense cravings. The results support predictions of cognitive-motivational models of craving and consumption that attentional biases play a causal role in consumption behavior. Furthermore, they present a promising avenue for tackling unwanted food cravings and (over)eating.
越来越多的证据表明，注意力偏差与酒精和烟草等物质的消费有关，而且注意力偏差修正可以减少这些物质的不必要消费。据我们所知，我们首次提出证据表明，同样的逻辑论证适用于食物和饮食领域。我们进行了两项实验，使用改良的点探测范式来训练本科女生将注意力导向（“关注”）或远离（“回避”）食物线索（即巧克力图片）。在实验1中，“关注”组对巧克力线索的注意力偏差增加，而“回避”组则减少。实验2表明，这些训练效果推广到了新颖的、以前未见过的巧克力图片上。重要的是，注意力再训练影响了巧克力的消费和渴望。在两项实验中，“回避”组的参与者在所谓的味觉测试中比“关注”组的参与者吃的巧克力更少。此外，在实验2中，但在实验1中没有，“关注”组在训练后报告了更强烈的巧克力渴望，而“回避”组报告的渴望强度较低。结果支持了渴望和消费的认知动机模型的预测，即注意力偏差在消费行为中起因果作用。此外，它们为解决不必要的食物渴望和（过度）饮食提供了一条有希望的途径。
