Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River Parkway, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA, 19081, USA.
Appetite. 2021 Jul 1;162:105165. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105165. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
What is the role played by attentional load in eating? Does attending to an unrelated task generally lead to overeating, perhaps by preventing individuals from focusing on a goal to limit consumption? Or does such attentional diversion typically lead to reductions in eating, perhaps by preventing people from noticing tempting features of relevant food cues? Past research has supported each of these two propositions, but comparisons between existing studies have been hampered to the extent that various experimental manipulations differ in the degree to which they occupy attention, as well as differing in the particular type of attentional resources they exploit. To resolve existing discrepancies in the literature, in a series of studies, we made use of a working memory manipulation, the n-back task (Kirchner, 1958), that can be systematically modified to induce varying levels of cognitive load, allowing for rigorous comparisons of the effects of different levels of attentional load on eating. These studies revealed a complex pattern of results. Analysis of findings from three studies employing within-subjects designs documented a linear relationship, in that participants consumed less food when completing a higher cognitive-load task than when completing a lower cognitive-load task. Three studies employing between-subjects designs highlighted a less consistent pattern of results, but when combined in a mini-meta-analysis, suggested the opposite linear relationship, with participants assigned to higher cognitive-load conditions generally consuming more food than participants assigned to lower cognitive-load conditions. We conducted two additional studies to reconcile these conflicting patterns of data. Neither finding received unequivocal support, although both studies found that participants ate less when engaged in higher cognitive-load tasks than lower cognitive-load tasks. The precise nature of the relationship between attentional load and eating remains elusive.
注意力负荷在进食中扮演什么角色？关注一项不相关的任务通常会导致过量进食，也许是因为它阻止个体专注于限制消费的目标？或者这种注意力转移通常会导致进食减少，也许是因为它阻止人们注意到相关食物线索诱人的特征？过去的研究支持了这两种观点，但由于现有研究之间的比较受到限制，因为各种实验操作在占用注意力的程度上存在差异，并且在它们利用的特定注意力资源类型上也存在差异。为了解决文献中的现有差异，在一系列研究中，我们利用了一种工作记忆操作，即 n-回任务（Kirchner，1958），可以系统地修改该任务以诱导不同程度的认知负荷，从而可以对不同程度的注意力负荷对进食的影响进行严格比较。这些研究揭示了一种复杂的结果模式。对采用被试内设计的三项研究的结果进行分析表明，存在线性关系，即参与者在完成高认知负荷任务时比完成低认知负荷任务时摄入的食物更少。三项采用被试间设计的研究突出了结果模式不太一致，但当结合在一起进行迷你元分析时，表明存在相反的线性关系，与被分配到高认知负荷条件的参与者相比，被分配到低认知负荷条件的参与者通常会摄入更多的食物。我们进行了另外两项研究来调和这些相互冲突的数据模式。虽然两项研究都发现参与者在进行高认知负荷任务时比进行低认知负荷任务时摄入的食物更少，但这两种发现都没有得到明确的支持。注意力负荷与进食之间的关系的确切性质仍然难以捉摸。
