ArticlePsychological research2026
Caloric content and industrial processing modulate the mental simulation of food concepts.
Article in Psychological research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionGrounded cognition theories propose that concepts, including food stimuli, are represented through the partial reactivation of sensory and motor experiences. Evidence suggests that foods subjectively perceived as unhealthy tend to elicit stronger sensorimotor simulations, which may, in turn, increase their perceived attractiveness and consumption. However, it remains unclear to what extent objectively defined food properties, specifically caloric content and degree of industrial processing, modulate this simulation.
methodsIn this study, 99 Italian-speaking participants rated 50 food words (25 highly processed; 25 minimally processed) across six sensory modalities (interoception, touch, hearing, olfaction, taste, vision), a motor dimension, and measures of wanting and liking. Food categories were matched for caloric content to isolate the effect of processing level.
resultsLinear mixed-effects models revealed a significant and consistent interaction between caloric content and degree of processing in modulating mental simulation across all sensory modalities, the global perceptual index (Minkowski3), and motor simulation. Specifically, higher caloric content was associated with stronger sensorimotor simulation only for highly processed foods, whereas this relationship was not significant for minimally processed ones. Furthermore, higher levels of simulation, both perceptual and motor, predicted greater wanting and liking, independently of the objective properties of the foods.
conclusionsThese findings indicate that industrial processing constitutes a relevant variable, distinct from caloric content alone, in shaping sensorimotor food representations, and suggest a possible cognitive mechanism through which ultra-processed foods may acquire heightened motivational salience, with potential implications for understanding dysregulated eating behavior and designing interventions to promote healthier food choices.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.