Investigation of food preference in infants related to the odor familiarity: picture book approach

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13162
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Japan Women's University
• Principal Investigator: KANAZAWA SO 日本女子大学, 人間社会学部, 教授 (80337691)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 乳児 / 食物 / 選好 / 親近性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the effect of visual information on the food preference in 2- to 3-year-old toddlers. We conducted two kinds of tasks: a naming task and a preference task. We prepared photographs and line drawings of vegetables and fruits. We chose vegetables and fruits based on the familiarity calculated by the wholesale quantity orders of the market (Wada, Inada, Yang, Kunieda, Masuda, Kimura, Kanazawa, & Yamaguchi, 2012).
In the experiment, we presented the food photo images side by side and asked participants to choose a favorite one and say the name of the food. Results showed that the effect of the naming task on preference was different between vegetables and fruits. And the visual information of color and texture might be important factors for a food’s visual preference.

Free Research Field

Developmental psychology

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

研究では、視覚刺激と食べ物との関連を検討する実験心理学的な研究と、絵本がいかに効果的な母子間コミュニケーションを促すかを検討する出版社と現場ベースの検討を総合的に行った。前者は和文の学術誌である基礎心理学研究に成果が報告され、後者は、知覚をベースとしたいくつかの絵本の開発につなげることに成功した。これらの成果は、今後、絵本を用いた食べ物の好みの制御を検討して行く際の足掛かりになると考えられる。