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OBJECTIVE: To investigate attentional biases for body shape and weight-related stimulus words among subjects with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and control subjects classified using a measure of dietary restraint. METHODS: A visual probe detection task was used to assess attention toward stimulus words reflecting either a thin or a large physique and positively or negatively valenced emotion words. RESULTS: In comparison to controls, subjects with eating disorders detected target probes more slowly when they appeared in the same location as had stimulus words connoting a thin physique. In addition, there was a trend toward faster detection or target probes that appeared in the same location as had stimulus words connoting a large physique. Neither of these effects were observed among restrained eaters. DISCUSSION: Our results extend prior work suggesting information-processing biases for body shape and weight-related stimuli among persons with eating disorders.
Rieger et al. (Sun,) studied this question.