Eva Kemps

• PhD
• Flinders University

Objective To investigate whether the introduction of healthy vending machines on a university campus could increase the proportion of healthy food and beverage purchases. Design Four new healthy vending machines offering a wider range of healthier food and beverages were installed alongside existing machines. These new machines used traffic light...

Consumer sleep trackers provide useful insight into sleep. However, large‐scale performance evaluation studies are needed to properly understand sleep tracker accuracy. This study evaluated performance of an under‐mattress sensor to estimate sleep and wake versus polysomnography in a large sample, including individuals with and without sleep disord...

Universal body image interventions have the potential to reach the large groups of young people affected by body dissatisfaction. Two common limitations of these interventions are their ability to be delivered at scale, and for the task of intervention delivery to be shifted to non-professional facilitators. The Embrace Kids Classroom Program (EKCP...

ORP is a continuous metric of sleep depth and wake propensity, which distinguishes different levels of sleep depth within the same conventional sleep stage. Circadian-informed lighting may improve sleep depth compared to regular, dim lighting. Previous analyses found that circadian-informed lighting extended N2 sleep compared to standard lighting....

Introduction Sleep is vitally important to maintain cognitive function. Sleep trackers can reliably estimate several sleep metrics to help predict cognitive performance, but associations between sleep-tracker estimated sleep and cognitive domains are unclear. This study examined associations between sleep tracker-estimated sleep and next-day cognit...

Consumer sleep trackers provide useful insight into sleep. However, large scale performance evaluation studies are needed to properly understand sleep tracker accuracy. This study evaluated performance of an under-mattress sensor to estimate sleep and wake versus polysomnography in a large sample, including individuals with and without sleep disord...

Research suggests that social media use is linked to greater body image concerns and appearance-altering behaviors (e.g., physical activity, anabolic-androgenic steroid use) in men; however, no review has collated these results specifically for men. Thus, the current systematic review examined the relationships between social media and body image (...

Background and Objectives Transdiagnostic approaches have been promoted as a means of maximising preventative effects across multiple problems with depression and anxiety suitable targets as they appear to have highly interconnected systems in pathology development and maintenance. This study investigated long-term effects of two universal school-b...

Study Objectives Shiftwork is associated with cognitive impairment and reduced sleep time and quality, largely due to circadian misalignment. This study tested if circadian-informed lighting could improve cognitive performance and sleep during simulated night shifts versus dim control lighting. Methods Nineteen healthy participants (mean ± SD 29 ±...

Study Objective Night work has detrimental impacts on sleep and performance, primarily due to misalignment between sleep–wake schedules and underlying circadian rhythms. This study tested whether circadian-informed lighting accelerated circadian phase delay, and thus adjustment to night work, compared to blue-depleted standard lighting under simula...

Objective To test whether traffic light labels and an increased range of healthy beverages, individually and in combination, can increase healthy beverage choices from vending machines. Design Two studies ( n = 558, 420) tested whether the provision of traffic light labels (green, amber and red) and an increased range of healthy beverages (from 20...

Issues Addressed Research suggests visual nudging techniques can subtly encourage healthier consumption. Two experiments explored the effect of four visual primes for nudging drink choices from a vending machine display. Methods Participants (17–25 years) were randomly assigned to view vending machine advertising posters containing pictorial nudge...

By design, tripolar concentric ring electrodes (TCRE) provide more focal brain activity signals than conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes placed further apart. This study compared spectral characteristics and rates of data loss to noisy epochs with TCRE versus conventional EEG signals recorded during sleep. A total of 20 healthy sle...

Predicting vigilance impairment in high‐risk shift work occupations is critical to help to reduce workplace errors and accidents. Current methods rely on multi‐night, often manually entered, sleep data. This study developed a machine learning model for predicting vigilance errors based on a single prior sleep period, derived from an under‐mattress...

A relationship between excessive sugar consumption and cognitive function has been described in animal models, but the specific effects of sugars in humans remains unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the current knowledge, research characteristics, and quality of evidence of studies investigating the impacts of free...

Introduction Tri -concentric ring electrodes (TCRE) evaluate the current density underlying each electrode and provide improved signal-to-noise compared to conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes. This pilot study used TCRE for the first time to compare TCRE versus more conventional EEG signals during sleep . Materials and Method Twen...

Introduction Consumer sleep trackers are useful for tracking daily sleep, particularly in shift-workers, yet large, multi-night validations against direct sleep measures are lacking. Conducted as one of the largest sleep tracker validation studies to date, this study evaluated performance of an under-mattress sensor (Withings Sleep Analyzer [WSA])...

Introduction Recent studies have reported poor and reduced sleep in myopic, or short-sighted, individuals. Here, we investigated differences in melatonin secretion timing and output and actigraphy-derived sleep in myopic and non-myopic (or emmetropic) children, aged 8-15 years. Methods 26 myopes [refractive error (mean ± standard error mean) -2.06...

Study Objectives This study investigated the differences in melatonin circadian timing and output, sleep characteristics, and cognitive function in myopic and non-myopic (or emmetropic) children, age 8-15 years. Methods 26 myopes [refractive error (mean ± standard error mean) -2.06 ± 0.23 dioptres] and 19 emmetropes (-0.06 ± 0.04 dioptres), aged 1...

Familial influence, specifically from mothers and sisters, may impact the development of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in young women. Guided by the Tripartite Influence Model, the present study recruited 422 young Australian women for a survey to determine how appearance pressures and fat talk, exhibited by mothers and sisters, and me...

Aim: To determine whether a digital nudge soon after dinner reduces after-dinner snacking events as measured objectively by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods: This is a single-site micro-randomized trial (MRT). People with T2D, aged 18-75 years, managed with diet or a stable dose of oral antidiab...

Introduction Due to misalignment between circadian timing and the work/rest schedule, cognitive performance during night shift-work is often poor. This study tested a circadian-informed lighting strategy designed to improve on-shift cognitive performance through alerting effects, faster circadian adjustment to the shift-work schedule and promoting...

Soft drink overconsumption is a growing public health concern. The present research investigated whether priming nudges could decrease soft drink choices from a vending machine. We compared the effect of six vending machine wraps (Mount Franklin ™ logo, Coca-Cola™ logo, picture of water, picture of soft drink, blue, red) on beverage choice against...

The importance of nutrition in human health has been understood for over a century. However, debate is ongoing regarding the role of added and free sugars in physiological and neurological health. In this narrative review, we have addressed several key issues around this debate and the major health conditions previously associated with sugar. We ai...

Excess consumption of unhealthy foods has become a major public health problem. Although one potential contributor to unhealthy consumption is poor inhibitory control, findings have been inconsistent. A meta-analysis of 35 studies was conducted to determine whether, and under which conditions, inhibitory control, as measured by the Go/No-Go and Sto...

Introduction Tri-concentric ring electrodes (TCRE) evaluate current density underlying each electrode rather than a voltage difference between two conventionally placed electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes. TCRE signals are more focal and show improved signal-to-noise with markedly reduced electromyographic interference compared to conventional...

Introduction Shift-work results in misalignment between circadian timing and the sleep/wake schedule, negatively impacting sleep and performance. In encapsulated environments (e.g., submarines), the lack of strong daily lighting cues impairs circadian entrainment. This study tested whether circadian-informed LED lighting promotes greater circadian...

Introduction Performance impairments are risky in many industries, including healthcare and defence. Predicting when impairments are more likely to occur is critical to reduce costly workplace accidents and errors. This study created models for predicting vigilance during simulated night shift-work from under-mattress sleep sensor data. Methods Th...

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of verbal size descriptors on portion size selections. Specifically, we investigated a range of size options within an online ordering setting. A sample of 216 female Flinders University students were asked to select a side dish, drink, and dessert from one of three online menus with varying po...

The overconsumption of sugar sweetened beverages is an increasing public health concern. Understanding the socio-cognitive determinants that drive such consumption could inform the development of interventions to reduce sugar sweetened beverage consumption. The aim of the present review and meta-analysis was to determine the strength of association...

Instagram-based priming (e.g., subtly incorporating healthy drinks into the background of Instagram images) could potentially nudge healthier consumption behaviours. Given the negative health consequences associated with sugar-sweetened-beverage consumption, two experiments tested the effect of three sets of Instagram-based primes for nudging drink...

Objective Adolescence is a critical period for the onset of unhealthy eating habits. One important contributing factor is poor inhibitory control (IC), a cognitive skill that enables behavior regulation. IC training appears successful in countering unhealthy eating in adults, but evidence in adolescents is scarce. In addition, the mechanism of chan...

Cravings for a range of substances including drugs, alcohol, and food have been shown to predict subsequent consumption or use. However, this link has not yet been systematically examined for beverages other than alcohol. The present study aimed to provide a comprehensive investigation of cravings for non-alcoholic beverages and their link to consu...

Elevated brain reward and attention region response, and weaker inhibitory region response to high-calorie foods has predicted future weight gain, suggesting that an intervention that reduces reward and attention region response and increases inhibitory region response to such foods might reduce overeating. We conducted a randomized controlled tria...

The prevalence of unhealthy food cues in our environment is a major contributor to poor dietary behaviours. Emerging research has shown that changing the food environment through the co-presentation of a healthy food cue may subtly ‘nudge’ individuals towards making healthier choices. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of a healthy f...

Unhealthy eating and related chronic illness are serious public health concerns. Initial attempts to discourage unhealthy eating using explicit techniques have been largely unsuccessful. However, emerging implicit interventions have started to show promise. Common implicit interventions in food-choice contexts include placement, priming/cueing, def...

Soft drink consumption has become a major public health issue. The present study aimed to examine the role of rash impulsivity and reward sensitivity in soft drink consumption using the two-factor model of impulsivity. Participants were a community sample of 229 adults (19–77 years). They completed self-report measures of impulsivity (SUPPS–P), rew...

Photo manipulation (editing photos prior to sharing them) has become increasingly popular on social media. While intended to enhance a photo’s quality, this behaviour has been linked to heightened body image concerns. The present study investigated whether social media photo manipulation predicts facial dissatisfaction, attitudes towards cosmetic p...

An increasing number of studies associate online media consumption with depressive symptoms in young people (10–24 years). However, the findings have been somewhat contradictory. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine whether the contradictory findings are due to inconsistency in type and/or measurement of online media. A review...

Although attentional bias modification has been shown effective in several appetitive domains, results have been mixed. A major contributor seems to be the choice of control condition. The aim of the present study was to compare attentional bias modification for chocolate against a new control condition, sham-n (neutral or no-contingency) training....

Previous attempts to promote healthy eating using explicit techniques have not been consistently successful. We therefore investigated an implicit strategy (item placement techniques) to encourage healthy food choices in the context of snack menus. Two experimental studies compared presentation of healthy items in the top, middle, and bottom sectio...

Background Childhood anxiety and depression lead to great distress and impairment. Preventing them simultaneously in early life is critically important. We evaluated the long-term efficacy of an emotion regulation-based (ER) and a behavioural activation-based (BA) program. Both aimed to build resilience to prevent worry, a transdiagnostic feature a...

Global consumption of soft drinks has increased rapidly over the past 50 years, making this a major public health problem. Guided by dual-process models, the present study aimed to provide a comprehensive investigation of the roles of cognitive biases (evaluative, attentional, and approach biases) and self-regulatory control in soft drink consumpti...

Purpose Physical activity confers many physical and mental health benefits. Thus, it is of great concern that the COVID-19 lockdown has adversely impacted engagement in physical activity. There is a need to understand the factors linked to physical activity during COVID-19 as this will be fundamental to the development of innovative approaches to s...

This research evaluates how mental availability affects consumer choice of specific branded packaged snacks versus unbranded non-packaged snacks. Mental availability captures the probability of concepts coming to mind when making decisions. Concepts nested within a broad network of memory associations (e.g., those created by marketing for branded p...

Continual exposure to soft drink cues in the environment is thought to be a major contributor to the rising consumption of soft drinks. This study investigated the effect of one such cue, television advertising, on soft drink choice and intake. Within the context of dual-process models, we examined whether any such effects would be stronger for ind...

This research aimed to replicate a previous UK-based finding that low craving control predicts increased intake of high energy density foods (HED) during the COVID-19 lockdown, and extend this finding to adults living in Victoria, Australia. The study also assessed whether acceptance coping moderates the relationship between craving control and inc...

Introduction One in three adolescents frequently consume unhealthy snacks, which is associated with negative developmental outcomes. To date, it remains unclear how intrapersonal factors account for food choices in adolescents. Guided by the dual-pathway model, the current study aimed to: (1) examine the joint contribution of inhibitory control and...

Objective Loss of control over eating (LOC) is common among adolescents and is associated with negative developmental outcomes. Low self‐regulation, and specifically low inhibitory control, is increasingly emphasized as an underlying factor in LOC. However, the specific context in which these capacities fail remains unclear. The affect regulation m...

Purpose Previous studies have indicated a relationship between the use of commercial physical activity apps (e.g., Fitbit, Strava) and physical activity engagement. The use of social components of such apps, in particular app-specific communities (connecting with other app users) and existing social media platforms (e.g., Facebook) have the potenti...

Objective Dual-pathway models propose that loss of control over eating (LOC) is the result of an imbalance between weaker regulatory and stronger reactive processes. However, these processes are generally captured with only one assessment method, leading to mixed findings. Additionally, it is unclear whether regulatory difficulties are generic or f...

The simultaneous engagement in more than one form of media, known as media multitasking, is an ever-increasing phenomenon in our daily lives. Previous studies have associated media multitasking with lower self-control, greater sensation seeking and inattention, which could have detrimental effects on task performance. The current study examined tas...

Objective There has been increasing interest in identifying individuals with pathological healthy eating behaviours, or orthorexia nervosa (ON). This study aimed to investigate the validity (construct- and criterion-related) and reliability (internal consistency) of the Eating Habits Questionnaire (EHQ) as a measure of ON. A secondary aim was to ex...

Background and objectives: Emotion regulation refers to the way individuals manage and regulate their own emotions in response to negative emotional experiences. This study investigated whether media multitasking serves as an avoidance coping strategy for managing emotionally stressful events. Design and methods: Using a correlational design, 14...

Impulsivity contributes to poor outcomes of existing childhood obesity treatments. Conceptualised within dual-process models, this self-regulation failure reflects the operation of strong automatic processing (heightened food responsivity) and/or weak regulatory processing (poor self-control). This systematic literature review examined the evidence...

Intake of dietary supplements has increased, despite evidence that some of these have adverse side effects and uncertainty about their effectiveness. This systematic review examined the evidence for the cognitive benefits of a wide range of dietary supplements in healthy young adult samples; the aim was to identify if any might be useful for optimi...

Objective: The current study aimed to provide a preliminary evaluation of two universal school-based prevention programs, Emotion Regulation (ER) and Behavioral Activation (BA), by increasing resilience to manage excessive worry, a transdiagnostic feature across anxiety and depression. Method: Primary school children (N = 295; 52.5% female; 8-13...

Energy drink consumption is increasing worldwide, especially among young adults, and has been associated with physical and mental health problems. In two experiments, we tested the prediction that energy drink consumption is in part driven by biased cognitive processing (attentional and approach biases), with a view to modifying these to reduce con...

Background In today’s society, commercial physical activity apps (eg, Fitbit and Strava) are ubiquitous and hold considerable potential to increase physical activity behavior. Many commercial physical activity apps incorporate social components, in particular app-specific communities (allowing users to interact with other app users) or the capacity...

BACKGROUND In today’s society, commercial physical activity apps (eg, Fitbit and Strava) are ubiquitous and hold considerable potential to increase physical activity behavior. Many commercial physical activity apps incorporate social components, in particular app-specific communities (allowing users to interact with other app users) or the capacity...

Binge eating among adolescents is associated with negative developmental outcomes. From a cognitive perspective, the role of impaired self-regulation is increasingly emphasized as an underlying factor in binge eating, whereas the affect regulation model proposes that affectivity is a key factor in explaining binge eating. Studies combining both per...

Background: Physical activity mobile apps present a unique medium to disseminate scalable interventions to increase levels of physical activity. However, the effectiveness of mobile apps has previously been limited by low levels of engagement. Existing Web-based social networking platforms (eg, Facebook and Twitter) afford high levels of popularit...

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of the spatial positioning of a healthy food cue in the context of unhealthy food cues on subsequent food choice. Undergraduate women (N = 143) were asked to choose a food from a pictorial-style menu that presented a salad and three unhealthier food options in a horizontal line. The position of the...

The Compensatory Health Beliefs Model proposes that individuals may believe that an unhealthy behaviour can be compensated for by subsequent engagement in a healthy behaviour. The present study aimed to test this proposition, specifically by examining the influence of snack consumption (healthy, unhealthy) on type of activity selected (physical, se...

The contemporary food-rich environment has been consistently linked to unhealthy eating. Emerging research suggests that changing the presentation context of unhealthy foods by introducing a subtle nudge in the form of a healthy food cue may promote healthier dietary choices. This study investigated the effect of the timing of a healthy food cue (b...

The current studies aimed to measure and modify approach biases for physically active lifestyle cues. In Study 1, 136 participants who, on average, met physical activity guidelines completed an implicit association task (IAT) to measure approach bias for words representing a physically active or inactive lifestyle. Approach bias scores were positiv...

Anxiety and depression are among the most common mental health issues experienced in childhood. Implementing school-based prevention programs during childhood, rather than adolescence, is thought to provide better mental health outcomes. The present meta-analysis aimed to investigate the efficacy of universal school-based prevention programs that t...

BACKGROUND Physical activity mobile applications (apps) present a unique medium to disseminate scalable interventions to increase levels of physical activity. However, the effectiveness of mobile apps has previously been limited by low levels of engagement. Pre-existing online social networking platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) afford high levels...

With recent developments in technology, media multitasking is an ever-increasing phenomenon. Although most studies associate media multitasking with high impulsivity and poorer cognitive performance, findings in the literature have been mixed, with some studies suggesting the opposite. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship betwe...

The Elaborated-Intrusion Theory of Desire (Kavanagh, Andrade, & May, 2005) suggests that cravings are made up of two distinct stages whereby an initial, seemingly spontaneous craving-related thought is sufficiently intrusive and pleasant for it then to be elaborated with vivid mental imagery. Previous questionnaire studies have investigated the cra...

Traditional models of exercise motivation presume that behavior is driven by rational decision-making processes. However, recent evidence suggests that automatic motivational processes also play a role in motivating exercise behavior. The current study examined whether regular exercise engagement is linked to implicit approach–avoidance memory asso...

Two studies aimed to examine whether high socially anxious individuals are more likely to negatively interpret ambiguous social scenarios and facial expressions compared to low socially anxious individuals. We also examined whether interpretation bias serves as a mediator of the relationship between trait social anxiety and state anxiety responses,...

The present study investigated the effect of two craving reduction techniques, namely, cognitive defusion and guided imagery, on naturalistic food cravings. These techniques targeted the intrusion and elaboration stages of the craving process, respectively (Kavanagh, Andrade, & May, 2005). Participants underwent a seven-day baseline period followed...

This study investigated the effects of combined audience feedback with video feedback plus cognitive preparation, and cognitive review (enabling deeper processing of feedback) on state anxiety and self-perceptions including perception of performance and perceived probability of negative evaluation in socially anxious individuals during a speech per...

Objective: Loss of control over eating is common among adolescents and is associated with negative developmental outcomes. Recent evidence points to impaired self-regulation, and more specifically poor inhibitory control, as a contributing factor to loss of control over eating among adults; however evidence in adolescent samples is limited. Moreov...

Two experiments investigated whether attentional bias modification can inoculate people to withstand exposure to real-world appetitive food cues, namely television advertisements for chocolate products. Using a modified dot probe task, undergraduate women were trained to direct their attention toward (attend) or away from (avoid) chocolate pictures...

The study aimed to modify approach bias for healthy and unhealthy food and to determine its effect on subsequent food consumption. In addition, we investigated the potential moderating role of impulsivity in the effect of approach bias re-training on food consumption. Participants were 200 undergraduate women (17–26 years) who were randomly allocat...