Oooohhh, lots of silly possibilities here-thinking that boeuf in French is beef...leads me to cow...leads me to...well, maybe I'd better not go there-ha...even if it could be applicable in my case.

It is the 'illusion' part that has me stumped. Well, both parts actually. Guessing that maybe Delboeuf is someone's name and he noticed the illusion first?

Already had my toast for breakfast, but still hungry. Time to rummage through the pantry and refrigerator for something to eat. There is a small piece of cherry pie on a small plate left from dinner last night. Stream of consciousness here...

lol, Cyn. We were taught that when a word is capitalized in medicine, it means it is named for its inventor, or someone closely related to its discovery. For everyone else, she has left a clue....purposely??

Nancy.

Yep, Nancy. It came to me as I was writing, hence the "stream of consciousness" comment. Purely a guess, but glad it was a good guess. :)

So maybe we shouldn't bring out the big dinner plates for our Thanksgiving dinner this year? I always get too stuffed.

TM

Hmmmmm, me thinks it has something to do with size of plate :).

Annette

I don't get the paper but just recently read an article on the net about something similar. Although I don't remember this name being a part of the article, I remember it had to do with illusions and eating. Shocked to see it said that using a larger fork made you eat less.....don't ask me to explain.....I just skimmed the article! lol.

In regards to food, it has to do with how much empty plate surrounds the food on the plate, making the same amount of food seem either larger or smaller. Less empty edge makes constant amount of food seem like more.

Just chimed in Nancy. Are you kidding me?! This is what was in my inbox this morning. Must be getting close to the holidays LOL! Ya think?

http://www.lifescript.com/Newsletters/2011/11/20/Living_Well_With_Diabetes.aspx?VID=97150&SID=59407061&EID=(CE47A635-46A7-4C71-B72C-0AAC995CAF5E)&utm_campaign=20111120&utm_source=diabetes&utm_medium=email&utm_content=view-as-webpage&OID1=406622&OID2=406621&OID3=&OID4=&OID5=&OID6=&OID7=&OID8=

Yeah, guys name, I think he was German or French or something but maybe I'm illusional?? Or is that de-lusional after thinking about negative space from last weekend....I get that way about 5 times a day after living with this diet for 40 years!!!! The birds eat more than me and their dishes are full!!! Must be something going round....or maybe we really do mind meld....:)

Ginny

So, was he the one who noticed that people will feel more full if they use a small plate that looks like more food? I do remember an article once talking aout how the size of the dinner plate has increased over the years and with it, our waistlines! Maybe I will will switch to smaller plates-after Thanksgiving!

Cynthia

ps. Bobbie, I posted a response to your last post on yesterday's trivia.

It's only an optical illusion Cynthia! Trust me, you'll still feel hungry! Wish someone would come up with an "audical illusion", I'm thinkin' somethin' like the opposite of Pavlov's dog thing.......lol :) And pretty sure that word can not be used for Scrabble........:)

Ginny

{{gwi:615991}}

The Delboeuf illusion finds that if two identical circles are placed side by side, one surrounded by a much larger circle and the other by only a slightly larger circle, people falsely perceive the inner circles as dissimilar in size. People consistently over-serve themselves when given larger dinnerware: they perceive the middle space on the dish as larger than it really is. "It's not simply that the bowl holds more," says van Ittersum, the study's lead author. "Even when you give people a specific target amount, they'll pour more than the target into a big bowl, and less into a small bowl, because of this illusion."
And because it's the inner and outer circles that power the visual trick, the colour contrast between the two has a significant effect on serving behaviour.

For example, study participants placing white pasta into a white dish served themselves significantly more than those placing red pasta into a white dish. "If you want to reduce the amount of unhealthy food you eat, you want to choose a plate that really contrasts with it; if you plan to eat healthy food and want to eat more, you want to choose a plate with a lower contrast," says van Ittersum, an associate professor of marketing at Georgia Institute of Technology.
The researchers found that a tablecloth similar in colour to the dinnerware significantly diminished over-serving tendencies. This, again, comes back to the Delboeuf illusion. "If you put a white plate on a white tablecloth, the illusion kind of disappears because you eliminate the outside circle and just focus on the inside circle," explains van Ittersum. Laughing, he says it's "all very technical." But the bottom line is that choosing dinnerware based on its size and contrast with the food or table is a much more effective strategy than education. * stolen from the Ottawa Citizen.

So, their you go - it really is all in our minds!! This is my contribution to your Thanksgiving celebrations - go ahead, TM, get the big dinner plates out! Just make sure the table cloth is the same colour, and you are good to go. btw, Ginny, Franz Joseph Delboeuf was a Belgian philosopher. An Englishman, Edward Brantford Titchenor did further research on false perceptions of size. And we all know, at the holidays, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs!! lol.

So, for Cyn, whose stream of consciousness led the charge, and for ThinMan, Annette, mnwsgal, and Honalee's newsletter:

Greylady - do I owe you stars? I wasn't sure. I did check it out and the Journal of Consumer Research, same outfit that did the followup on the Delboeuf Illusion, did research at 2 Italian restuarants. This study show that people using larger forks tended to eat less!! Now that is weird. Check out the following: The authors tested this conclusion by varying the quantities of food. They found that when the initial quantity of food was more (a well-loaded plate) diners with small forks ate significantly more than those with large forks. When customers were served small servings, the fork size did not affect the amount of food. Interestingly, in a lab experiment the authors found that participants with small forks consumed less than those with large forks. The authors believe that the participants did not have the same goals of satiating hunger as the restaurant customers did.

To avoid overeating, the authors suggest consumers learn to better understand hunger cues. "People do not have clear internal cues about the appropriate quantity to consume," the authors write. "They allow external cues, such as fork size, to determine the amount they should consume."

So there you all go - thanks for playing!!

Nancy.

You know where I remembered this from Nancy, was a Critical Thinking class I took in University. We had many examples of optical illusions in our class but the email I got from the Lifescript and the clues reminded me of the concept. Too bad there is no such thing as "illusional calories"!

Thanks for the fun Nancy! I think I am going to cook a turkay on Thursday just to celebrate with our southern neighbours! Then take advantage of Black Friday. :)

Ginny

Great question, Nancy. I am giving everyone salad plates for Thanksgiving dinner. ;)

lol. Or put your gramma's nice white tablecloth under the white plates and give them all fish forks!!!

Nancy.

Since most people do not stop eating when their hunger is sated as it takes a short period of time before one's body registers full perhaps the illusion of having eaten more encourages one to stop eating and then the body indicates full, which results in less food eaten. DH has broken three dinner plates since he retired last year so soon we may have to use our salad plates instead.

Tomorrow I will go to the grocery store to pick up yams and fruit for our holiday dinner. The turkey is already in the frig.

Our small amount of snow from the weekend is melting quickly and I am looking forward to the near 50 degrees forecast for Thanksgiving Day.

Thanks, Nancy and Cynthia, for another fun weekend of trivia.

No stars for me Nancy. Like I said, I only skimmed an article and the only thing I remember about it was the part about the fork. I only joined in to say that because it seemed so odd to me. :)
Hope I can join in next weekend. :)