Salivation to the Sight and Thought of Food: A New Measure of Appetite*

Salivary response to the sight of food was studied to determine its value as a quantitative and objective measure of appetite. Salivation was measured by a simple technique using cotton dental rolls, before and during exposure to familiar foods. Increases in salivation occurred regularly when subjects looked at or thought of palatable food. The amount of salivation varied significantly and meaningfully with manipulated deprivation and palatability, and was correlated with subjects' ratings of hunger (r = 0.75) and appeal of the food stimuli (r = 0.46), indicating that the measure reflects appetite by several criteria. Salivary responses to food stimuli were found to be attenuated when subjects did not expect to eat the food. This method, because it employs an involuntary response, should prove a useful addition to other indices of hunger in studies of food regulation.