Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect

Proximal objects provide affordances that activate the motor information involved in interacting with the objects. This effect has previously been shown for artifacts but not for natural objects, such as food. This study examined whether the sight of proximal food, compared to distant food activates...

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Main Authors:	Junghans, Astrid F., Evers, Catharine, De Ridder, Denise T. D.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Public Library of Science 2013
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3867504/

id	pubmed-3867504
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-38675042013-12-23 Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect Junghans, Astrid F. Evers, Catharine De Ridder, Denise T. D. Research Article Proximal objects provide affordances that activate the motor information involved in interacting with the objects. This effect has previously been shown for artifacts but not for natural objects, such as food. This study examined whether the sight of proximal food, compared to distant food activates eating-related information. In two experiments reaction times to verbal labels following the sight of proximal and distant objects (food and toys) were measured. Verbal labels included function words that were compatible with one object category (eating and playing) and observation words compatible with both object categories. The sight of food was expected to activate eating-related information when presented at proximity but not at distance, as reflected by faster reaction times to proximal than distant compatible eating words and no difference between reaction times to proximal and distant food for observation words (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 additionally compared the reaction times to wrapped and unwrapped food. The distance effect was expected to occur only for unwrapped food because only unwrapped food is readily edible. As expected, Experiment 1 and 2 revealed faster responses to compatible eating words at proximity than at distance. In Experiment 2 this distance effect occurred only for readily edible, unwrapped food but not for wrapped food. For observation words no difference in response times between the distances was found. These findings suggest that the sight of proximal food activates eating-related information, which could explain people’s differential behavioral responses to reachable versus distant food. The activation of eating-related information upon sight of accessible food could provide a cognition-based explanation for mindless eating. Public Library of Science 2013-12-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3867504/ /pubmed/24367684 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0084643 Text en © 2013 Junghans et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Junghans, Astrid F. Evers, Catharine De Ridder, Denise T. D.
spellingShingle	Junghans, Astrid F. Evers, Catharine De Ridder, Denise T. D. Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect
author_facet	Junghans, Astrid F. Evers, Catharine De Ridder, Denise T. D.
author_sort	Junghans, Astrid F.
title	Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect
title_short	Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect
title_full	Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect
title_fullStr	Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect
title_full_unstemmed	Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect
title_sort	eat me if you can: cognitive mechanisms underlying the distance effect
description	Proximal objects provide affordances that activate the motor information involved in interacting with the objects. This effect has previously been shown for artifacts but not for natural objects, such as food. This study examined whether the sight of proximal food, compared to distant food activates eating-related information. In two experiments reaction times to verbal labels following the sight of proximal and distant objects (food and toys) were measured. Verbal labels included function words that were compatible with one object category (eating and playing) and observation words compatible with both object categories. The sight of food was expected to activate eating-related information when presented at proximity but not at distance, as reflected by faster reaction times to proximal than distant compatible eating words and no difference between reaction times to proximal and distant food for observation words (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 additionally compared the reaction times to wrapped and unwrapped food. The distance effect was expected to occur only for unwrapped food because only unwrapped food is readily edible. As expected, Experiment 1 and 2 revealed faster responses to compatible eating words at proximity than at distance. In Experiment 2 this distance effect occurred only for readily edible, unwrapped food but not for wrapped food. For observation words no difference in response times between the distances was found. These findings suggest that the sight of proximal food activates eating-related information, which could explain people’s differential behavioral responses to reachable versus distant food. The activation of eating-related information upon sight of accessible food could provide a cognition-based explanation for mindless eating.
publisher	Public Library of Science
publishDate	2013
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3867504/
_version_	1612039718937034752

Eat Me If You Can: Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Distance Effect

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