Cognitive interference and a food-related memory bias in binge eating disorder.
The present study was concerned with cognitive interference and a specific memory bias for eating-related stimuli in binge eating disorder (BED). Further objectives were to find out under which circumstances such effects would occur, and whether they are related with each other and with reported severity of BED symptoms. A group of women diagnosed with BED and a matched sample of overweight controls completed two paradigms, an n-back task with lures and a recent-probes task. The BED group generally experienced more interference in the n-back task. Additionally, they revealed selectively increased interference for food items in the recent-probes task. Findings can be reconciled with the view that control functions are generally impaired in BED, and that there is an additional bias for eating-related stimuli, both of which were related with reported severity of BED symptoms.
University of Freiburg, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Germany. Electronic address: svaldi@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de.
Jennifer
J
Svaldi
Florian
F
Schmitz
Monika
M
Trentowska
Brunna
B
Tuschen-Caffier
Matthias
M
Berking
Eva
E
Naumann
D000328:Adult; D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology; D050177:Overweight
Binge eating disorder; Cognitive interference; Food cues; Memory bias; N-back task with lures; Recent-probes task