Thought for food: investigations of cognitive aspects of food

Two investigations were carried out on the ways people construe food, using an approach based upon Personal Construct Theory and Repertory Grid techniques. The first study showed that secondary students employed many more subjective criteria to classify 32 foods than nutrition students. In the second study, nutrition and secondary students’ constructs of eight fruits and vegetables were elicited by means of a pairwise comparison technique. The students then rated these foods along their own constructs. The foods and constructs were related to each other by means of principal components analyses. The results indicated that the secondary students construed the foods in more evaluative and sensory terms than th£ nutrition students, who were more concerned with processing and physical appearance. The significance of the results is discussed in relation to the style of thinking associated with adolescence and young adulthood, and to the professional roles of nutrition students. Further work is indicated.