Stroop interference for food- and body-related words: a meta-analysis.
According to cognitive theories of eating disorders, biased information processing in favour of dysfunctional attitudes about food and body appearance plays a vital role in the development and maintenance of such disorders. Data from 27 studies evaluating Stroop interference for food- and body-related words with negative overtones were included in a meta-analysis in order to investigate whether such processing biases are specific to eating disordered samples. Participants were females characterised as eating disordered, non-eating disordered but nevertheless over-concerned with body appearance and eating, and normal controls. Mean Stroop interference for eating disordered females was of medium effect size (Cohen's d=0.48) and significantly larger than for both non-eating disordered females concerned with body appearance and eating, and normal control females (both d=0.21). Stroop interference for eating disordered females was thus of fairly modest magnitude where it was unclear whether such interference is specific to this sample.
Johansson
Linda
L
Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Box 1225, SE-751 42 Uppsala, Sweden. Linda.Johansson@psyk.uu.se
Ghaderi
Ata
A
Andersson
Gerhard
G
D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D001828:Body Image; D002032:Bulimia; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D012649:Self Concept; D012660:Semantics