Manipulations of attention during eating and their effects on later snack intake

Abstract

Manipulation of attention during eating has been reported to affect later consumption via changes in meal memory. The aim of the present studies was to examine the robustness of these effects and investigate moderating factors. Across three studies, attention to eating was manipulated via distraction (via a computer game or TV watching) or focusing of attention to eating, and effects on subsequent snack consumption and meal memory were assessed. The participants were predominantly lean, young women students and the designs were between-subjects. Distraction increased later snack intake and this effect was larger when participants were more motivated to engage with the distracter and were offset when the distractor included food-related cues. Attention to eating reduced later snacking and this effect was larger when participants imagined eating from their own perspective than when they imagined eating from a third person perspective. Meal memory was impaired after distraction but focusing on eating did not affect later meal memory, possibly explained by ceiling effects for the memory measure. The pattern of results suggests that attention manipulations during eating have robust effects on later eating and the effect sizes are medium to large. The data are consistent with previous reports and add to the literature by suggesting that type of attention manipulation is important in determining effects on later eating. The results further suggest that attentive eating may be a useful target in interventions to help with appetite control.

Are Eating Disorders Related to Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?

“…Experiments where participants are distracted (by television or computer) influenced later food consumption, by impacting meal memory. Manipulating attention appears to affect later-eating behavior, perhaps appetite [34]. One requires sufficient capacity to attend to the task of eating.…”

A structured literature review on the role of mindfulness, mindful eating and intuitive eating in changing eating behaviours: effectiveness and associated potential mechanisms

“…'Attention' was not included in the search terms for the interventions undertaken and it has since become apparent that this would have been a relevant search term. Attentive eating is a similar concept to mindful eating and has been shown to reduce food intake (96,97) .…”

Meal‐Concurrent Media Use is Associated with Increased Dietary Intake with no Evidence of Next Meal Compensation in Free‐Living Adults

“…We hypothesized that eating in the presence of media use would be associated with greater caloric intake at an eating occasion compared with eating without media use. Previous work in this area has been focused primarily on the overall amount of calories consumed , yet macronutrient characterization has been limited. We hypothesized that distracted eating would result in increased sugar and fat intake, as reported in previous studies .…”

“…Distracted eating has been associated with increased dietary intake in numerous studies, indicating that it may be a risk factor for overweight and obesity. Particular attention has been focused on the effects of media distractions, for example, watching television (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6), listening to music (7), using a smartphone (8), and playing computer games (6,9), while eating. The majority of studies have been in a laboratory-based environment (1)(2)(3)6,8), have examined the effects of media use on one meal (3,8), have used foods selected by the researchers (3,6,8), have relied on memory of media consumption (5), and/or have been focused on one type of media (2)(3)(4)(5)7).…”