Abstract

Objective

External food cues can trigger food seeking by means of associative Stimulus-Outcome-Response learning mechanisms. These mechanisms can contribute to cued overeating. The present study aims at investigating if (cued) food-seeking behaviour can be influenced by pro- and anti-sugar videos.

Design

Participants (N = 81) completed a Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) task: in an instrumental training, they learned associations between button presses and resulting sugary or sugar-free snacks. In a subsequent Pavlovian training, the snacks were paired with different cues. During the following transfer test, participants performed free button presses to win snacks while the cues were present or not.

Main outcome measures

The number of button presses for the different snacks in the transfer test was analysed.

Results

We observed an outcome specific PIT effect, i.e. higher response rates for cued snacks. The videos did not affect the PIT effect. However, exploratory analyses revealed that the anti-sugar video led to fewer button presses for sugary snacks (compared to the pro-sugar video).

Conclusion

While snack-seeking behaviour was unaffected by the video’s messages in the presence of food cues, in the absence of food cues there was evidence for a reduction of sugary snack choices by the anti-sugar video.

中文翻译：

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对食物线索束手无策：在巴甫洛夫到工具的转移范式中，亲糖和反糖视频对工具性食物寻求行为的影响

摘要

客观的

外部食物线索可以通过关联的刺激-结果-反应学习机制触发食物寻求。这些机制可能有助于暗示暴饮暴食。本研究旨在调查（暗示）寻食行为是否会受到亲糖和反糖视频的影响。

设计

参与者 ( N  = 81) 完成了巴甫洛夫到乐器转移 (PIT) 任务：在乐器训练中，他们学习了按钮按下与产生的含糖或无糖零食之间的关联。在随后的巴甫洛夫训练中，零食与不同的线索配对。在接下来的转移测试中，参与者在提示存在或不存在时执行免费按钮按下以赢得零食。

主要观察指标

分析了转移测试中不同零食的按钮按下次数。

结果

我们观察到特定结果的 PIT 效应，即提示零食的响应率更高。视频不影响 PIT 效果。然而，探索性分析显示，反糖视频导致含糖零食的按钮按下次数减少（与亲糖视频相比）。

结论

虽然在存在食物线索的情况下，寻求零食的行为不受视频信息的影响，但在没有食物线索的情况下，有证据表明反糖视频减少了含糖零食的选择。