Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2021-10-03
Abstract： Sexual selection has played important roles in shaping human psychology and behaviors. However, its roles in the field of food choice have been seldom examined. In the current study, we reviewed literature on the function of sexual selection in shaping human females’ food choice. According to relevant theories, sexual selection has shaped sex-specific mating strategies. For human males, they care more about potential mates’ physical attractiveness (body fat, waist-hip-ratio, etc.), which has been regarded as an indicator of fertility for human females. The pressure has pushed human females to pay more attention on their body figure. Since food and human’s body figure is intimately related, it is highly likely sexual selection might also cause an effect on human females’ food choice. Indeed, some studies has explored the possibility by examining female food choice after manipulating their mating motivation, and found that mating motivation reduced female choice of high-fat and high-sugar food. Besides, female choice of high-sugar food also fluctuated with menstrual cycle, with increased binge eating and high-sugar food choice during the midluteal phase of menstrual cycle and reduced high-fat food choice during ovulation. These findings suggested that sexual selection might play a role in shaping human females’ food choice. However, it should be noted that extant studies are far from enough to confirm the link. To further understand the relation between sexual selection and food choice in females, we need scholars from different disciplines to cooperate to conduct more systematic studies. Meanwhile, a brain-hormone-behavior perspective would be indispensable for building a comprehensive framework to understand the role of sexual selection in female food choice.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-07-20
Abstract： A wealth of research shows that positive and negative reinforcement critically influence behavior. While it is well established that rewards and penalties can strongly influence mechanisms of executive control, it is unclear whether these two factors exert symmetric or qualitatively distinct behavioral effects. In the current research, we conducted two eye-movement experiments to investigate the influence of monetary reward or punishment on attentional control. We employed these cues in pro/Anti-saccade tasks in Experiment 1 and Go/No-go tasks in Experiment 2. Crucially, we investigated how either a reward (also referred to as “gain”) or penalty (also referred to as “loss”)influenced inhibitory control in the following trial. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to produce simple pro-saccades or more difficult anti-saccades, in conditions in which they received a reward for correct responses or a punishment for incorrect responses or either a reward or punishment. The results showed that, while the accuracy of the pro-saccades was facilitated by reward, the accuracy of the anti-saccades was facilitated by punishment. And the velocity of pro-saccades and anti-saccades were significantly improved by both reward and punishment. In Experiment 2, we further adopted the Go/No-go tasks to explore how reward and punishment affect attentional control via exogenous parafoveal visual cues. This showed essentially the same pattern of effects as Experiment 1. For the Go task, saccade latency significantly decreased when rewards were given relative to punishment or no motivation conditions. And for the No-go task, accuracy increased more in the punishment condition compared to the reward or no motivation conditions. An increase in saccade velocity was observed in the no motivation condition, similarly to in Experiment 1. In sum, the overall results suggest that both reward and punishment can facilitate the oculomotor control, although the findings reveal a striking asymmetry in the effects of the reward and punishment on behavior. Specifically, positive reinforcement appears to improve approach behaviors, while punishment influences inhibitory behavior. These findings suggest that the two forms of reinforcement are distinct in their influence on behavior.
Hits
Hits
Downloads
Comment