Cognitive bias in eating disorders: interpretation of ambiguous body-related information

Eat Weight Disord. 2000 Sep;5(3):143-51. doi: 10.1007/BF03354444.

Abstract

Three groups of women: eating disorder, body dysphoric controls, and nonsymptomatic controls, participated in an experiment testing hypotheses derived from cognitive-behavioral theories of eating disorders. In phase 1, participants encoded ambiguous information via instructions to imagine themselves in a variety of ambiguous situations that involved two types of information: body-related or health-related. On a subsequent memory task, participants in the eating disorder group and the body dysphoric control group recalled imagery of the body-related situations with a fatness interpretation and participants in the nonsymptomatic control group recalled imagery with a thinness interpretation. The three groups did not differ in their interpretation of the health-related situations. In phase 2, participants were instructed to imagine themselves in each body-related situation, but were explicitly instructed to imagine the scenes with either a positive or negative interpretation. Results indicated that the eating disorder and body dysphoric groups were able to change their interpretation of body-related information when instructed to do so.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Body Image*
  • Cognition / physiology*
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / diagnosis
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology*
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / therapy
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Imagery, Psychotherapy
  • Mental Recall
  • Somatoform Disorders / psychology