0139–3006/$ 20.00 © 2016 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest Acta Alimentaria, Vol. 45 (4), pp. 515–524 (2016) DOI: 10.1556/066.2016.1111 MAKE A CHOICE! VISUAL ATTENTION AND CHOICE BEHAVIOUR IN MULTIALTERNATIVE FOOD CHOICE SITUATIONS L. DANNER a *, N. DE ANTONI a , A. GERE b,c , L. SIPOS c , S. KOVÁCS d and K. DÜRRSCHMID b a Department of Food Science, University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt, Zeiselgraben 4, A-3250 Wieselburg. Austria b Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 18, A-1190 Vienna. Austria c Sensory Laboratory, Szent István University, H-1118 Budapest, Villányi út 29–43. Hungary d Department of Research Methods and Statistics, University of Debrecen, H-4032 Debrecen, Böszörményi út 138. Hungary (Received: 27 January 2016; accepted: 26 April 2016) This study investigates the relationship between gazing behaviour and choice decision in multialternative forced choice tasks, focusing on the consistency across different food product groups including apple, beer, bread, chocolate, instant soup, salad, sausage, and soft drink. Each choice task consisted of pictures of four alternatives, similar in familiarity and liking ratings, of the corresponding product group. A Tobii T60 eye-tracker was used to present the stimuli and to analyse the gazing behaviour of 59 participants during decision-making. The results showed strong correlations between choice and gazing behaviour, in forms of more fixation counts, longer total dwell duration, and more dwell counts on the chosen alternative. No correlations for first fixation, time to first fixation, and first fixation duration were observed. These results were consistent across the eight tested product groups. Keywords: food choice, eye-tracking, multialternative choice situation, choice prediction Food choices are complex behaviours that are determined by many factors, including intrinsic product characteristics, biological, physiological, psychological, situational, sociocultural factors and extrinsic product characteristics and the interaction between them (KÖSTER, 2009). “The first taste is almost always with the eye” (IMRAM, 1999), triggering expectations, memories, emotions etc., consequently the visual perception is a vital component of total food quality perception and significantly influences food choice (JAROS et al., 2000; VAN DER LAAN et al., 2011). Most published studies examined gazing behaviour in a food or nutritional context, with a special focus on package design and food labels (BIALKOVA & VAN TRIJP, 2011; ARES et al., 2013, 2014). For a review regarding eye-tracking and nutrition label use see GRAHAM and co-workers (2012). “Not seen, not bought” is a well-known proverb of marketing experts. This raises the question how choice in general and especially food choice, product properties, and visual attention are associated. It has been demonstrated across different tasks that several gazing parameters are correlated with choice decisions. For a recent literature review on eye movements in decision-making, see ORQUIN and MUELLER LOOSE (2013). Summarizing * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Phone: +61 478647905; e-mail: lukas.danner@gmail.com