Memory for liking food
Summary
This is a BBSRC CASE studentship with Unilever Research, Colworth. Product choice is partly influenced by the remembered liking for that product at the time that the choice is made. Little research has been carried out on memory for the liking of foods, and yet remembered liking at the time of purchase maybe more influential on choice than liking ratings obtained during actual product consumption. This project brings together research from cognitive psychology on memory and perception with research on the determinants of consumer behaviour to address this issue.
Objectives
The objectives of the project are to gain a greater understanding of:
- The relationship between actual experienced liking for a food and remembered liking.
- How to make a food product memorable, e.g. how to get the right experience at the right time.
- How the dynamics of sensory delivery influence remembered liking.
Funder
BBSRC Case Studentship
Team
Researchers
Professor Richard Shepherd
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Biography
Richard Shepherd is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology, having retired in August 2011. He obtained degrees in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and in Psychology from Cardiff and Southampton. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Surrey and then worked at the Institute of Food Research from 1982 to 1998, initially in Norwich and then in Reading, before joining the University of Surrey as a Reader.
He has carried out research on a range of issues related to the factors influencing food choice. In particular this has involved the development and application of social cognition models to food choice issues and the exploration of the factors influencing dietary change. He has also conducted research on the perception of risk and risk communication particularly in relation to food issues. He has published widely in all of these areas of research, including editing two books.
He has directed research funded by BBSRC, ESRC, MAFF, FSA, Wellcome Trust and industry, in addition to several collaborative European projects funded by the EU. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. In the past Richard has been a member of the UK Food Standards Agency Social Science Research Committee, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) Social Science Expert Advisory Group and the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel.
Luke Jefferies
Researcher
Outputs
Conference presentations
Jefferies, L., Groeger, J. A. & Shepherd, R. (2005). Food memory: the role of levels of processing and papillae density. Poster presented at the 6th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Harrogate, 7-11 August 2005.
Research groups and centres
Our research is supported by research groups and centres of excellence.