title: Body size over-estimation in women with anorexia nervosa is not qualitatively different from female controls.
abstract: Over-estimation of body size is a cardinal feature of anorexia nervosa (AN), usually revealed by comparing individuals who have AN with non-AN individuals, the inference being that over-estimation is pathological. We show that the same result can be reproduced by sampling selectively from a single distribution of performance in body size judgement by comparing low BMI individuals with normal BMI individuals. Over-estimation of body size in AN is not necessarily pathological and can be predicted by normal psychophysical biases in magnitude estimation. We confirm this prediction in a dataset from a morphing study in which 30 women with AN and 137 control women altered a photograph of themselves to estimate their actual body size. We further investigated the relative contributions of sensory and attitudinal factors to body-size overestimation in a sample of 166 women. Our results suggest that both factors play a role, but their relative importance is task dependent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Piers L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johns
authors.forename: Martin J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Tovée
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D057215:Body Dysmorphic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D049628:Body Size; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult