Imagery About Eating

What it measures

The scale measures spontaneous mental imagery of food, capturing the tendency to picture eating during unrelated activities. It's especially useful for research on food cues and craving, where unprompted mental imagery can signal appetite even without physical hunger.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• __________, I imagined what it would be like to eat the _____.
• __________, I fantasized about eating the _____.
• __________, I thought about what the _____ would taste like.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Garbinsky and Klesse (2021) built this scale by drawing language from two established imagery measures (Babin & Burns 1998; Walters, Sparks, & Herington 2007). It was used across a pretest, posttest, and full study with strong reliability (α = .85–.94). Some validity evidence comes from an EFA that included items from two related scales.

Citation

Garbinsky, E.N., & Klesse, A. (2021). How (and When) the Presence of Food Decreases Enjoyment of Customer Experiences. Journal of Marketing Research, 58(4), 705–720.

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