Publication Date
Fall 2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Evan Palmer; Colleen Mills-Finnerty; Valerie Carr
Keywords
Attention;Food Insecurity;Food Security;Value Driven Attentional Capture;VDAC
Abstract
Food insecurities have been shown to lead to serious negative health outcomes such as increased risk for diabetes and obesity in adulthood, food-related mental health and behavioral issues, all of which can have a crossover effect in many areas of a person’s life. This experiment explores whether previous history of food insecurity is associated with how people allocate attention to pictures of food; whether they are prioritizing or ignoring food stimuli in their environment. We hypothesized that the severity of food insecurity experienced in childhood would correlate with attentional bias towards food images, and that how hungry or thirsty participants were would influence that bias. Participants in this study completed a digital food-related attentional capture task, demographic surveys, hunger surveys, and the U.S. Household Food Security Survey. A Kurskal- Wallis test was conducted and no correlation was observed between a history of childhood food insecurity and attentional bias towards food images. Neither was a correlation found between how hungry a person was and attentional bias towards food images. These findings show a need for further investigations into this topic. We show important gaps in our understanding of the impact of childhood food insecurity on attention to food items in adulthood.
Recommended Citation
Hogoboom, Nichole S., "Unveiling the Cognitive Impact: An Exploratory Study on Food Insecurity and Value-Driven Attentional Capture" (2024). Master's Theses. 5594.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.ceza-sgxj
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/5594
