Evaluative Processing of Food Images: A Conditional Role for Viewing in Preference Formation

Abstract

Previous research suggested a role of gaze in preference formation, not merely as an expression of preference, but also as a causal influence. According to the gaze cascade hypothesis, the longer subjects look at an item, the more likely they are to develop a preference for it. However, to date the connection between viewing and liking has been investigated predominately with self-paced viewing conditions in which the subjects were required to select certain items from simultaneously presented stimuli on the basis of perceived visual attractiveness. Such conditions might promote a default, but non-mandatory connection between viewing and liking. To explore whether the connection is separable, we examined the evaluative processing of single naturalistic food images in a 2 × 2 design, conducted completely within subjects, in which we varied both the type of exposure (self-paced versus time-controlled) and the type of evaluation (non-exclusive versus exclusive). In the self-paced exclusive evaluation, longer viewing was associated with a higher likelihood of a positive evaluation. However, in the self-paced non-exclusive evaluation, the trend reversed such that longer viewing durations were associated with lesser ratings. Furthermore, in the time-controlled tasks, both with non-exclusive and exclusive evaluation, there was no significant relationship between the viewing duration and the evaluation. The overall pattern of results was consistent for viewing times measured in terms of exposure duration (i.e., the duration of stimulus presentation on the screen) and in terms of actual gaze duration (i.e., the amount of time the subject effectively gazed at the stimulus on the screen). The data indicated that viewing does not intrinsically lead to a higher evaluation when evaluating single food images; instead, the relationship between viewing duration and evaluation depends on the type of task. We suggest that self-determination of exposure duration may be a prerequisite for any influence from viewing time on evaluative processing, regardless of whether the influence is facilitative. Moreover, the purported facilitative link between viewing and liking appears to be limited to exclusive evaluation, when only a restricted number of items can be included in a chosen set.

Tracking the Influence of Predictive Cues on the Evaluation of Food Images: Volatility Enables Nudging

“…Interestingly, this notion of extra information integration under doubt is also compatible with other findings from our laboratory on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the evaluation of food images. Particularly, across two connected studies, Wolf et al (2018Wolf et al ( , 2019 found that subjects tended to gaze longer at images for which they felt uncertain about the evaluation, completely against the prevailing notion in the literature that "viewing leads to liking." Again, the finding of longer gazing at items that are not clearly liked or disliked can be interpreted in terms of volatility.…”

Active Confirmation Bias in the Evaluative Processing of Food Images

“…963290-0403). Eye positions were recorded using Eye Tribe, an eye-tracking device at 60 Hz sampling rate (The Eye Tribe Aps, Denmark); a system with sufficient reliability for present purposes 22 , 54 , 55 .…”

“…We chose food images as a relevant category for evaluative processing with bivalent items 15 – 17 that elicit a complex integration of visual and non-visual features (e.g., flavor, caloric value, nutritive attributes) 18 – 21 . Previous research in our lab had further shown that the rating of individual food items provides a suitable opportunity to investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying evaluation 22 . Here, we examine how explicit, supraliminal positive or negative predictions impact on the evaluation of appetitive or aversive food images.…”

Urgency Promotes Affective Disengagement: Effects From Bivalent Cues on Preference Formation for Abstract Images

“…This interpretation mirrors other findings in our own laboratory, undercutting the notion that viewing leads to liking. Using an absolute-evaluation paradigm with food images, we found that in most situations, viewing time was not associated with increased preference formation when subjects evaluated food images one at a time, rather than making choices between pairs of images (Wolf et al, 2018(Wolf et al, , 2019. The entire pattern of data suggested that increased viewing times occurred under indecision or deliberative processing, that is, when subjects engaged in a prolonged effort of information integration.…”

“…The monitor screen was set approximately 62 cm from the chin-rest. Subjects used a keyboard to give manual responses, and their eye movements were recorded by Eye Tribe, an eye-tracking device at 60 Hz sampling rate (The Eye Tribe Aps, Denmark); a system with sufficient reliability for present purposes (Ooms et al, 2015;Wolf et al, 2018;Zommara et al, 2018). To prevent the heat buildup of Eye Tribe, a small universal serial bus (USB) fan was used at the same time.…”