| Summary: | Food decisions are
driven by differences in value of choice alternatives such that high value
items are preferred over low value items. However, recent research has
demonstrated that by implementing the Cue-Approach Training (CAT) the odds of
choosing low value items over high value items can be increased. This effect
was explained by increased attention to the low value items induced by CAT. Our
goal was to replicate the original findings and to address the question of the
underlying mechanism by employing eye-tracking during participants’ choice
making. During CAT participants were presented with images of food items and
were instructed to quickly respond to some of them when an auditory cue was
presented (cued items), and not without this cue (uncued items). Next,
participants made choices between two food items that differed on whether they
were cued during CAT (cued versus uncued) and in pre-training value (high
versus low). As predicted, results showed participants were more likely to
select a low value food item over a high value food item for consumption when
the low value food item had been cued compared to when the low value item had
not been cued. Important, and against our hypothesis, there was no significant
increase in gaze time for low value cued items compared to low value uncued
items. Participants did spend more time fixating on the chosen item compared to
the unchosen alternative, thus replicating previous work in this domain. The
present research thus establishes the robustness of CAT as means of
facilitating choices for low value over high value food but could not
demonstrate that this increased preference was due to increased attention for
cued low value items. The present research thus raises the question how CAT may
increase choices for low value options.
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