Abstract
This investigation studied the presence of a memory bias for words connoting fatness in persons diagnosed with an eating disorder. Eating disorder subjects were compared to a nonsymptomatic control group and to a symptomatic (weight-preoccupied) control group. A memory bias for fatness words in eating disorder patients was found. There was no evidence for a memory bias in either group of control subjects, i.e., those who were preoccupied with body size and shape nor those without extreme preoccupation. The three groups did not differ in the recall of nonfat or neutral words. These results were interpreted as evidence in support of the hypothesis that activating self-schemata in eating disorder patients results in a recall bias for fat-related stimuli.
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This article is based on the doctoral dissertation of Shannon B. Sebastian (1993). Portions of this article were presented at the annual convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Atlanta, November 1993.
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Sebastian, S.B., Williamson, D.A. & Blouin, D.C. Memory bias for fatness stimuli in the eating disorders. Cogn Ther Res 20, 275–286 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02229238
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02229238