Hunger Effects on Option Quality for Hedonic and Utilitarian Food Products

Multiple studies have examined the extent to which consumers’ hunger levels predict their food choices and preference patterns. These investigations often involve making binary choices between hedonic and utilitarian foods. However, most consumers entering a grocery store are not restricted to solely selecting either hedonic or utilitarian foods. Rather, they typically choose both hedonic and utilitarian food options. Moreover, little is known about the effects of hunger on the quality of these food choices or consumers’ cognitive performance in food contexts. To address these gaps, the current study explored (1) whether experimentally induced hunger (vs. satiation) influenced the option quality of consumers’ chosen food items (i.e., the match between actual choices and stated preferences); (2) whether this potential interplay was contingent on the food category (hedonic vs. utilitarian); and (3) whether hungry (vs. satiated) consumers’ performance differed on cognitively challenging tasks. The results revealed that hunger did not lead to a generalized decrease in consumers’ option quality. However, option quality was inferior for utilitarian—but not hedonic—foods among hungry participants, whereas no such differences were found for satiated participants. Hungry (vs. satiated) consumers also performed significantly worse on cognitively demanding tasks, underscoring the far-reaching consequences of hunger on consumers’ decision-making. Together, the current research offers a novel way of testing whether and how hunger influences the quality of consumers’ chosen food items in both hedonic and utilitarian food categories.

How increased cognitive load affects the dual-task cost in healthy young adults? A randomized, double-blind sham-controlled study

Our ability to interact flexibly with the surrounding environment and achieve an adaptive goal-directed response is one of the necessities of balance control. This study aimed to examine the interaction between cognitive demand and the necessity for keeping balance in unstable conditions. We examined the effects of performing two cognitive tasks, namely the Stroop test and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), on postural balance in healthy young adults. Stroop and the WCST test assess selective attention and cognitive flexibility in shifting between rules, respectively. Thirty-two healthy adults were included in two experimental conditions (control and treatment) in random order, separated by at least seven days. Standing balance was evaluated by the Sway Medical Mobile application in eyes open (EO) and eyes closed (EC) in different stance positions: feet apart, feet together, semi-tandem, tandem, and single-leg stance (SLS). Balance was evaluated before and after the cognitive test in each experimental condition. Our findings indicate that performing cognitively demanding tasks adversely affected the balance ability in more demanding balance tests such as the SLS with EC (P ˂ 0.05). However, no significant changes were seen in other balance tests (P ˃ 0.05). Additionally, no significant changes were seen in balance ability after the Stroop or Wisconsin card sorting test alone. These results confirm that performing cognitively demanding tasks significantly reduced the ability to keep balance in less stable conditions. These findings have significant implications in understanding and preventing falls and incidents resulting from an impaired balance in complex and cognitively demanding conditions.

Information about task progress modulates cognitive demand avoidance

People tend to avoid engaging in cognitively demanding tasks unless it is ‘worth our while’—that is, if the benefits outweigh the costs of effortful action. Yet, we seemingly partake in a variety of effortful mental activities (e.g. playing chess, completing Sudoku puzzles) because they impart a sense of progress. Here, we examine the possibility that information about progress—specifically, the number of trials completed of a demanding cognitive control task, relative to the total number of trials to be completed—reduces individuals’ aversion to cognitively effort activity, across four experiments. In Experiment 1, we provide an initial demonstration that presenting progress information reduces individuals’ avoidance of cognitively demanding activity avoidance using a variant of the well-characterized Demand Selection Task (DST). The subsequent experiments buttress this finding using a more sophisticated within-subjects versions of the DST, independently manipulating progress information and demand level to further demonstrate that, 1) people prefer receiving information about temporal progress in a task, and 2) all else being equal, individuals will choose to exert greater levels of cognitive effort when it confers information about their progress in a task. Together, these results suggest that progress information can motivate cognitive effort expenditure and, in some cases, override individuals’ default bias towards demand avoidance.

Learning to Launch Cognitively Demanding Tasks: A Practice-Based Unit for Secondary Methods

Cognitively demanding tasks provide important opportunities for students to develop an understanding of mathematics; however, they are challenging to launch and implement. The authors designed a secondary methods unit on launching tasks. Participants in the study were enrolled in five different methods courses. Using a noticing framework, findings suggest that by engaging in the unit, preservice teachers developed a greater understanding of the four aspects of an effective task launch. When viewing video examples, preservice teachers were able to talk about the four aspects of a task launch with increased specificity. Additionally, they began to identify ways of developing common language without reducing cognitive demand. We discuss implications of this work and offer suggestions for future teacher education research.

A field study on marching band members’ workload assessment

BACKGROUND: Marching band activities consist of both physically and cognitively demanding tasks. The demands that this activity has on players has largely been unstudied. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of players’ experience level, role, and gender on the workload of marching band players via a field study. METHODS: Surveys were issued during one game day to the Oregon State University Marching Band (OSUMB) in the fall of 2017. Increments of discomfort ratings and workload ratings were gathered. The three independent variables were experience level (novice or experienced), role (leader or non-leader), and gender. RESULTS: Novice players had a higher discomfort for their left hand and a higher level of cognitive demand as opposed to experienced players. Leaders had a higher increment of discomfort in their neck and upper back, and higher workload ratings in their performance workload and overall weighted workload than the non-leaders. Gender had no effect on increment of discomfort and workload, but some trends were noted. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that players’ role and experience, but not gender, can influence their workloads and discomfort.

Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size

Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size – a physiological correlate of mental effort – can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner and either devised a division of labor strategy (main experiment) or the labor division was already pre-determined (control experiment). We observed that pupil sizes increase relative to performing the MOT task alone in the main experiment while this is not the case in the control experiment. These findings suggest that pupil size can detect a rise in coordination effort, extending the view that pupil size indexes mental effort across a wide range of cognitively demanding tasks.