Natalia S Lawrence
Biographic Data
| ID | 6255569 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Natalia S Lawrence |
| GIVEN NAMES | Natalia S |
| FAMILY NAME | Lawrence |
| SIGNATURE | LAWRENCE N S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Exeter |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1969-6637 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 135 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Early attempts to stop eating meat
Efforts to reduce meat consumption amongst adults have had mixed success. Recent research has pointed to children as one group who may have more morally inclusive attitudes towards non-human animals, yet less is known regarding their efforts to abstain from meat consumption. Using a retrospective survey with a sample of emerging adults in the UK (pre-screen study n = 1063, M age = 22.5, main study n = 461, M Age = 22.2), this study documents that…
Exploring trait- and state-based dietary restraint using ecological momentary assessment
Researchers often use trait-based questionnaires to characterise dietary restraint, but it is unclear how this relates to real-life appetite and eating behaviour. Advances in technology have facilitated the development of ecological momentary assessment (EMA), an approach which captures everyday experiences in real-time. The aim of this study was to use our novel EMA tool (Momentary appetite capture; MAC) to investigate appetite and prospective p…
A comparison of participant characteristics and psychological predictors of meat and alcohol reduction in Veganuary and Dry January∖
Comparing the effects of response inhibition training combined with evaluative conditioning and response inhibition training alone on meat devaluation
Disgust and distaste – Differential mechanisms for the rejection of plant- and animal-source foods
People may reject foods due to distaste (an affective reaction to undesirable sensory properties) or disgust (an emotive response to the idea of what a food represents). Disgust can further be classified into sub-types: core, animal-reminder, and moral disgust, all of which could influence food rejection. Prior research suggests different rejection mechanisms for plant and animal foods. We tested this in an online study in a meat-rejecting sample…
Correlates of meat reduction in those taking part in Veganuary
New Year’s resolutions – who wants to change their lifestyle and how
Development of Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC)
Understanding how an intervention impacts appetite in real-life settings and over several days remains a challenging and under-explored research question. To this end, we developed Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC), a form of ecological momentary assessment that combines automated text messaging with an online platform. Participants report their appetite using visual analogue scales (hunger, desire to eat, and fullness) and a virtual portion-size …
Using ecological momentary assessment to investigate trait- and state-based dietary restraint in everyday life
Genetic susceptibility to obesity is partly mediated by emotional overeating during adolescence
Double whammy
A Program for the Comprehensive Cognitive Training of Excess Weight (TRAINEP)
Participants will be 150 people with excess weight recruited through social media, who will be randomized into three groups: cognitive intervention, sham cognitive intervention, and treatment as usual. All assessment and intervention sessions will be online in groups of 5-6 participants. The three groups will attend a motivational interviewing session, and they will receive individualized diet and physical exercise guidelines throughout the progr…
The impact of Covid-19 on the eating habits of families engaged in a healthy eating pilot trial
App-based food-specific inhibitory control training as an adjunct to treatment as usual in binge-type eating disorders
App-based food-specific inhibitory control training as an adjunct to treatment as usual in binge-type eating disorders
Current treatments for binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) only show moderate efficacy, warranting the need for novel interventions. Impairments in food-related inhibitory control contribute to BED/BN and could be targeted by food-specific inhibitory control training (ICT). The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility and acceptability of augmenting treatment for individuals with BN/BED with an ICT app (FoodT), which ta…
Using Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC) to characterise the everyday experience of disinhibited eaters
Feasibility of trialling an app-based inhibitory control training programme in a Tier 3 Paediatric Weight management Clinic
What role does meat disgust play in people’s meat consumption
Characterising binge eating over the course of a feasibility trial among individuals with binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa
Binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa are eating disorders that are characterized by recurrent binge eating episodes. The highly contextualized nature of binge eating makes naturalistic research a particularly suitable means of understanding the context within which binge eating occurs. The present study aimed to characterise binge eating days with regards to the frequency and probability of negative affect, food craving, meal skipping, and d…
Genetic risk for obesity is partially mediated by individual eating behaviours disinhibition and hunger, but not restraint
App-based food Go/No-Go training
Food Go/No-Go training aims to alter implicit food biases by creating associations between perceiving unhealthy foods and withholding a dominant response. Asking participants to repeatedly inhibit an impulse to approach unhealthy foods can decrease unhealthy food intake in laboratory settings. Less is known about how people engage with app-based Go/No-Go training in real-world settings and how this might relate to dietary outcomes. This pragmatic…
Meat disgust is negatively associated with meat intake – Evidence from a cross-sectional and longitudinal study
When do children learn how to select a portion size
Food-related inhibitory control training reduces food liking but not snacking frequency or weight in a large healthy adult sample
Liking of typical ‘children’s meals’ unaffected by neophobia and food fussiness Liking of typical ‘children’s meals’ unaffected by neophobia
Training response inhibition to food is associated with weight loss and reduced energy intake
The majority of adults in the UK and US are overweight or obese due to multiple factors including excess energy intake. Training people to inhibit simple motor responses (key presses) to high-energy density food pictures reduces intake in laboratory studies. We examined whether online response inhibition training reduced real-world food consumption and weight in a community sample of adults who were predominantly overweight or obese (N = 83). Par…
Stopping to food can reduce intake. Effects of stimulus-specificity and individual differences in dietary restraint
Overeating in our food-rich environment is a key contributor to obesity. Computerised response-inhibition training could improve self-control in individuals who overeat. Evidence suggests that training people to inhibit motor responses to specific food pictures can reduce the subsequent choice and consumption of those foods. Here we undertook three experiments using the stop-signal task to examine the effects of food and non-food related stop-tra…
Training response inhibition to reduce food consumption
Training individuals to inhibit their responses towards unhealthy foods has been shown to reduce food intake relative to a control group. Here we aimed to further explore these effects by investigating the role of stimulus devaluation, training protocol, and choice of control group. Restrained eaters received either inhibition or control training using a modified version of either the stop-signal or go/no-go task. Following training we measured i…
Meat disgust is negatively associated with meat intake – Evidence from a cross-sectional and longitudinal study
From cookies to carrots; the effect of inhibitory control training on children's snack selections
Children consume too much sugar and not enough fruit and vegetables, increasing their risk of adverse health outcomes. Inhibitory control training (ICT) reduces children's and adults' intake of energy-dense foods in both laboratory and real-life settings. However, no studies have yet examined whether ICT can increase healthy food choice when energy-dense options are also available. We investigated whether a food-specific Go/No-Go task could influ…
App-based food Go/No-Go training
Food Go/No-Go training aims to alter implicit food biases by creating associations between perceiving unhealthy foods and withholding a dominant response. Asking participants to repeatedly inhibit an impulse to approach unhealthy foods can decrease unhealthy food intake in laboratory settings. Less is known about how people engage with app-based Go/No-Go training in real-world settings and how this might relate to dietary outcomes. This pragmatic…
Food-related inhibitory control training reduces food liking but not snacking frequency or weight in a large healthy adult sample
Giving pork the chop
App-based food-specific inhibitory control training as an adjunct to treatment as usual in binge-type eating disorders
Current treatments for binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) only show moderate efficacy, warranting the need for novel interventions. Impairments in food-related inhibitory control contribute to BED/BN and could be targeted by food-specific inhibitory control training (ICT). The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility and acceptability of augmenting treatment for individuals with BN/BED with an ICT app (FoodT), which ta…
When do children learn how to select a portion size
Mass dissemination of web and smartphone-delivered food response inhibition training to reduce unhealthy snacking
The Evidence Information Service as a new platform for supporting evidence-based policy
The value of evidence-based policy is well established, yet major hurdles remain in connecting policymakers with the wider research community. Here we assess whether a UK Evidence Information Service (EIS) could facilitate interaction between parliamentarians and research professionals. Fifty-six UK parliamentarians were interviewed to gauge the challenges of working with evidence and the potential utility of an EIS. Grounded theory analysis iden…
Development of Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC)
Understanding how an intervention impacts appetite in real-life settings and over several days remains a challenging and under-explored research question. To this end, we developed Momentary Appetite Capture (MAC), a form of ecological momentary assessment that combines automated text messaging with an online platform. Participants report their appetite using visual analogue scales (hunger, desire to eat, and fullness) and a virtual portion-size …
Explicit and implicit training of food response inhibition is associated with food devaluation and weight loss
Reducing food consumption by training inhibitory control
Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Impaired Decision Making in Pathological Gambling
Thus, while the findings of
Can advertising ruin our self-control? The effects of inhibitory control training and food advertising on snack food consumption
Response inhibition training to reduce overeating
Reducing food consumption by training inhibitory control
Stopping to food can reduce intake. Effects of stimulus-specificity and individual differences in dietary restraint
Overeating in our food-rich environment is a key contributor to obesity. Computerised response-inhibition training could improve self-control in individuals who overeat. Evidence suggests that training people to inhibit motor responses to specific food pictures can reduce the subsequent choice and consumption of those foods. Here we undertook three experiments using the stop-signal task to examine the effects of food and non-food related stop-tra…
Training response inhibition to food is associated with weight loss and reduced energy intake
The majority of adults in the UK and US are overweight or obese due to multiple factors including excess energy intake. Training people to inhibit simple motor responses (key presses) to high-energy density food pictures reduces intake in laboratory studies. We examined whether online response inhibition training reduced real-world food consumption and weight in a community sample of adults who were predominantly overweight or obese (N = 83). Par…
The Evidence Information Service as a new platform for supporting evidence-based policy
The value of evidence-based policy is well established, yet major hurdles remain in connecting policymakers with the wider research community. Here we assess whether a UK Evidence Information Service (EIS) could facilitate interaction between parliamentarians and research professionals. Fifty-six UK parliamentarians were interviewed to gauge the challenges of working with evidence and the potential utility of an EIS. Grounded theory analysis iden…
Beating temptation
Explicit and implicit training of food response inhibition is associated with food devaluation and weight loss
A novel multicomponent food response training intervention reduces body fat and neural and subjective food reward in obese participants
Training response inhibition to reduce food consumption
Training individuals to inhibit their responses towards unhealthy foods has been shown to reduce food intake relative to a control group. Here we aimed to further explore these effects by investigating the role of stimulus devaluation, training protocol, and choice of control group. Restrained eaters received either inhibition or control training using a modified version of either the stop-signal or go/no-go task. Following training we measured i…
A randomised controlled trial examining the efficacy of smoking-related response inhibition training in smokers
The trial was prospectively registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry 17th February 2017. Trial ID: ACTRN12617000252314
Cognitive training as a potential treatment for overweight and obesity
The aim of this review is to critically evaluate the effectiveness and candidate mechanisms of action of psychological interventions which aim to either (a) improve the capacity for self-regulatory, reflective processes or (b) reduce the impact of automatic appetitive processes, in an attempt to influence food intake and associated weight-gain. Our aim was to examine three important issues regarding each type of intervention: i) whether the inter…
From cookies to carrots; the effect of inhibitory control training on children's snack selections
Children consume too much sugar and not enough fruit and vegetables, increasing their risk of adverse health outcomes. Inhibitory control training (ICT) reduces children's and adults' intake of energy-dense foods in both laboratory and real-life settings. However, no studies have yet examined whether ICT can increase healthy food choice when energy-dense options are also available. We investigated whether a food-specific Go/No-Go task could influ…
The neurobiology of cognitive control training as a weight loss aid
Mass dissemination of web and smartphone-delivered food response inhibition training to reduce unhealthy snacking
Development of a clinical tool for weight management using response inhibition training
Cognitive control training to reduce overeating and promote weight loss
No effect of tDCS on food consumption or food craving when combined with inhibitory control training
Cognitive control training as a weight loss tool
Incidental fear reduces empathy for an out-group’s pain
Humans generally fear those different to them (i.e., an out-group) in the same way they fear natural predators. But fear pushes us to derogate others, whether they constitute a threat or not. Research has examined how fear associated with specific intergroup relations interferes with how individuals relate to in-group and out-group members. However, we know relatively little about how intergroup relations might be affected by incidental emotions.…
Giving pork the chop
What role does meat disgust play in people’s meat consumption
Characterising binge eating over the course of a feasibility trial among individuals with binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa
Binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa are eating disorders that are characterized by recurrent binge eating episodes. The highly contextualized nature of binge eating makes naturalistic research a particularly suitable means of understanding the context within which binge eating occurs. The present study aimed to characterise binge eating days with regards to the frequency and probability of negative affect, food craving, meal skipping, and d…
Genetic risk for obesity is partially mediated by individual eating behaviours disinhibition and hunger, but not restraint
Psychology (42 works) · Medicine (31 works) · Eating Disorders and Behaviors (22 works) · Psychiatry (20 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (15 works) · Obesity (14 works) · Cognition (13 works) · Internal Medicine (13 works) · Clinical Psychology (12 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (10 works)