appetite
Enable an agent to recognise and describe appetite, distinguish it from neighbouring motivational states, and judge which interpretations or responses the available evidence supports.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an agent to recognise and describe appetite, distinguish it from neighbouring motivational states, and judge which interpretations or responses the available evidence supports.
Appetite is the motivation or desire to eat, arising from interactions among physiological state, food reward, learned expectations and environmental cues, and it can occur without an immediate energy deficit.
It can be Elicit what the person wants, how strongly, over what period and in which sense of appetite.; Track appetite against a documented personal baseline using comparable observations.; Compare appetite reports with hunger, fullness, liking and intake while preserving their differences.; Identify contexts associated with appetite changes and formulate hypotheses without asserting causation.; Record whether an offered food or consumption opportunity matches expressed appetite and voluntary choice.; Flag unresolved changes for appropriate human review using an externally established protocol..
Distinguishing features
Ask whether the record concerns wanting to consume or obtain gratification; merely liking something or judging it favourably does not establish a present appetite.
Record hunger and appetite separately: a report of bodily need and a report of wanting food are different observations, even when they occur together.
Distinguish a broad willingness to eat from an urgent desire for a particular food; the latter may warrant a linked craving description without defining all appetite as craving.
Distinguish wanting from consumption: an appetite report concerns inclination, while intake records concern action and cannot alone establish the reported experience.
Identify the bearer and sense: a person's appetite for food and an organisation's risk appetite require different models despite sharing the word.
Scope
+ Definitions of appetite and the disciplinary or everyday contexts in which they are used
+ Episodes and recurring patterns of wanting food or another explicitly identified object of gratification
+ Appetite intensity, selectivity, timing and change relative to the person's own baseline
+ Relationships between reported appetite, bodily sensations, anticipated pleasure and observed consumption
+ Conditions shaping appetite and limits on interpreting or acting on its measurement
- Nutritional requirements, energy balance and metabolic regulation as complete physiological models
- Eating, drinking, purchasing or other consummatory actions as activities in their own right
- Clinical disorders, diagnostic criteria and treatment protocols
- Food composition, availability and preparation as properties of foods and food systems
- Institutional risk appetite, policy limits and investment preferences
- Desire, motivation and preference in their full generality
Characteristics
- Meaning and operational definition
- Food-directed subjective appetite; broader appetitive inclination; figurative use; unresolved, with attributed definition Prevents incompatible meanings from being treated as measurements of one settled construct.
- Bearer and attribution
- Person or organism, linked to self-report, observer attribution or behavioural inference Separates experienced appetite from another party's interpretation of it.
- Appetitive object
- Food generally; specified food, drink or sensory property; another named object; unspecified Identifies what is wanted and whether the record uses the primary or an extended sense.
- Reported intensity
- Instrument-specific score with anchors, direction, assessment time and recall period; no universal unit assumed Supports comparison only when the measurement meanings are compatible.
- Selectivity
- Broad; restricted to a category; object-specific; mixed; unknown Distinguishes general appetite from narrowly targeted wanting.
- Temporal pattern
- Current episode; recurring pattern; sustained change; uncertain, with onset, duration and assessment times Separates a momentary state from a pattern requiring further interpretation.
- Change from personal baseline
- Difference on a comparable scale or reported increase, decrease or no change, with baseline period Makes change interpretable without assuming one normal level for everyone.
- Relation to hunger, fullness and anticipated pleasure
- Separately recorded concurrent observations with agreement, divergence or unknown relation Avoids replacing appetite with a neighbouring sensation or evaluation.
- Opportunity to consume
- Available; constrained; unavailable; unknown, with access and choice constraints Helps explain why behaviour may not express appetite.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 27 questions.
Appetite meanings and boundaries Represent the meaning of appetite being used and the distinctions needed to recognise an instance.
The registry has no definition, so an agent must not silently equate appetite with hunger or extend food appetite to every form of desire.
Definitions and instances
Capture attributed definitions and their criteria for including an experience as appetite.
Definition-dependent recognition
Record the adopted definition, its source or proponent, and whether it treats appetite as subjective wanting, a broader disposition or a behavioural construct.
- What definition is being used, and what experience or observation qualifies as an instance under it? definition
- Who uses this definition, and which alternative definitions would classify the same case differently? provenance
Neighbouring motivations
Separate appetite from hunger, liking, craving and figurative uses.
Food-wanting boundary
Keep wanting food, bodily hunger, anticipated enjoyment and specific craving separately describable, with links where the adopted definitions overlap.
- Does this account establish wanting to eat, or only hunger, liking, craving or actual eating? boundary
- If the object is not food, what justifies including this use here rather than linking it to another model? boundary
Appetitive experience Describe whose appetite is at issue, what it is directed toward and how the experience is characterised.
A broad willingness to eat and a strong desire for one particular food should remain distinguishable.
Bearer and object
Identify the bearer, the wanted object and how narrowly the appetite is directed.
Direction and selectivity
Record whether appetite concerns food generally, a food category, a particular item or a sensory quality, without assuming rejected alternatives indicate absent appetite.
- Whose appetite is described, and what food, category or sensory quality is wanted? definition
- Which alternatives would also be welcome, and which would be declined despite the reported appetite? measurement
Intensity and associated experience
Characterise strength alongside separately reported hunger, fullness and expected enjoyment.
Wanting profile
Represent appetite intensity without collapsing associated sensations or anticipated pleasure into the same score.
- How strong is the wanting at the stated assessment time, and what do the response anchors mean? measurement
- What hunger, fullness and anticipated enjoyment are reported at the same time, and where do they diverge from wanting? boundary
Appetite over time and context Locate appetite in episodes, personal patterns and relevant surrounding conditions.
An isolated appetite rating cannot establish a recurring pattern, a sustained change or its cause.
Episodes and baselines
Record onset, duration, recurrence and the comparison period used to describe change.
Within-person change
Describe increases or decreases relative to a documented personal baseline and comparable observation conditions.
- When did the appetite episode or change begin, how long has it lasted, and does it recur? measurement
- Which observations establish the person's usual appetite, and are they comparable to the current observations? provenance
Meal cues and surroundings
Record candidate contextual influences without assigning unverified mechanisms.
Contextual associations
Link appetite observations to meal timing, food cues, social setting and reported changes in routine or bodily state, marking causal interpretations as hypotheses.
- What was the timing relative to eating, and what food cues, social conditions or routine changes accompanied the observation? measurement
- What evidence supports an influence on appetite rather than coincidence, reverse influence or a shared cause? provenance
Appetite evidence and consumption Track how appetite is known and how its measures relate to eating behaviour.
Reports, observer judgements and food intake answer different questions and require explicit interpretation.
Elicitation and measurement
Preserve the wording, source and conditions behind an appetite assessment.
Measurement meaning
Record whether an assessment asks about desire to eat, expected amount, food appeal or another construct, together with its method and applicability.
- What exact prompt, response scale, recall period and assessment conditions produced this observation? measurement
- What evidence supports interpreting this method as appetite measurement for this population and purpose? provenance
Wanting and eating
Compare expressed appetite with consumption while accounting for opportunity and constraints.
Report-behaviour divergence
Retain mismatches between wanting and eating as observations to explain rather than automatically correcting one from the other.
- What was eaten or declined, and how does that compare with the appetite reported for the same period? measurement
- Could access, acceptability, deliberate restraint, social expectations or difficulty eating explain the mismatch? boundary
Appetite-informed response Connect appetite observations to proportionate responses, personal goals and limits of inference.
An agent needs to distinguish accommodating an expressed appetite from judging nutritional adequacy or making clinical decisions.
Goals and voluntary choice
Relate appetite to what the person wants help with and which responses they welcome.
Response fit
Record whether the intended response is understanding a pattern, offering suitable food, adjusting timing or seeking further assessment, with the person's preferences explicit.
- What outcome does the person want, and do they experience the current appetite as welcome, unwanted or neutral? action
- Which available response fits their expressed appetite, practical constraints and voluntary choice? action
Interpretation and review limits
State which conclusions appetite evidence supports and when another model or human reviewer is needed.
Unsettled change and handoff
Keep unexplained appetite changes explicit and attach any escalation decision to an applicable external protocol rather than inventing diagnostic thresholds.
- Which conclusions about nutritional need, illness or treatment remain unsupported by the appetite observations alone? boundary
- What established protocol, if applicable, governs review of this change, and what additional observations does it require? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- No sense is recorded: this account assumes appetite for food, rather than the broader meaning of desire or inclination.
- Homeostatic and hedonic appetite are overlapping explanatory distinctions, not mutually exclusive biological systems or a universal taxonomy.
- Research should check each study's operational definition: appetite sometimes serves as an umbrella for hunger, fullness, desire to eat and prospective consumption ratings.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Homeostatic appetite, associated with physiological energy and nutrient regulation
- Hedonic appetite, associated with anticipated or experienced pleasure from food
- Food-specific appetite, directed toward particular foods or sensory qualities
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Assessing nutritional difficulties in clinical care
- Studying how meals influence subsequent motivation to eat
- Evaluating effects of medicines on eating motivation
- Investigating food reward, eating behaviour and weight regulation
- Monitoring changes in desire to eat during illness or ageing
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Self-reported desire to eat - 0-100 on a common visual analogue scale; this is the instrument's span, not a population reference interval - mm along a 100 mm line
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Persistently reduced appetite can contribute to inadequate intake and malnutrition.
- Strong appetite in an environment with readily available food can contribute to intake exceeding requirements.
- Treating appetite as a direct measure of energy need overlooks reward, learning and contextual influences.
- Inferring appetite solely from food intake overlooks food availability, deliberate restraint and difficulties eating.
- An appetite change is nonspecific and does not establish its cause.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Cultural food preferences, meal schedules and expectations about appropriate eating influence appetite's expression and reporting.
- Translations and everyday usage may draw different boundaries between appetite, hunger and craving.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- hunger - Hunger generally denotes the subjective experience of needing food; appetite can include wanting appealing food while already full, although research terminology overlaps.
- satiation - Satiation is the process that brings an eating episode to an end; appetite concerns motivation to eat.
- satiety - Satiety is the suppression of eating motivation after a meal and between eating episodes.
- food craving - A craving is an intense desire commonly directed toward a particular food; appetite need not be intense or food-specific.
- food intake - Food intake is the amount actually consumed; appetite is a motivational state that may or may not lead to consumption.
- anorexia - Anorexia denotes diminished or absent appetite as a symptom; it is not synonymous with the diagnosis anorexia nervosa.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of appetite this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Does vr.tr.appetite denote food appetite specifically, a broader appetitive faculty or several senses that should remain linked within one entry?
- Which disciplinary definitions and competing accounts should be represented, and where do they disagree about hunger, wanting, liking and craving?
- Which appetite instruments have suitable evidence for each intended population, language and use, and which scores can legitimately be compared?
- How should appetite be attributed when self-report is unavailable, including in nonhuman organisms, without equating consumption with subjective experience?
- Which evidence and external protocols establish meaningful sustained change and appropriate review, without assuming universal appetite thresholds?