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Attentional biases in women at risk for eating disorders: A comparison of three cogntive tasks

Tressler, Danette Salas
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1228181985

Abstract Details

2008, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Research has shown that females with eating disorders show attentional biases toward food and body words. This bias has been demonstrated less consistently in non-clinical samples of women at risk for eating disorders. The bulk of the research in this area has used a modified version of the Stroop color-naming task. Although this task has been widely used, it may not allow full interpretation of the attentional bias. The purpose of the present study was to replicate and extend previous results in a sample of women at risk for eating disorders. In order to extend previous research, participants completed a probe discrimination task, which permitted a distinction between attentional facilitation and delay of attentional disengagement, and a deployment of attention task in addition to a modified Stroop color-naming task. In order to maximize the likelihood of finding attentional biases toward food and body-words, one half of the participants were weighed prior to the completion of the cognitive tasks, whereas the other half was weighed after the cognitive tasks. The present study also examined the moderating effects of difficulties in emotion regulation, negative affectivity, and attentional control on attentional biases to food and body words. It was expected that high-risk women would demonstrate greater attentional biases to food- and body-words compared to low-risk women and that this bias would be magnified for those women who had been weighed before the tasks. The analyses were conducted two ways: first, an extreme groups analysis was used to compare participants in the upper and lower quartiles for a composite score that was derived from measures of restrained eating and drive for thinness; then, the entire sample was examined in a secondary analyses. No clear pattern of findings emerged to suggest that high-risk women have attentional biases for food and body words compared to low-risk women. Contrary to predictions, the weighing manipulation appeared to eliminate rather than magnify differences between high- and low-risk women. However, given the large number of analyses, it is possible that at least some of the results were obtained by chance. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
Michael W. Vasey, PhD (Advisor)
Daniel R. Strunk, PhD (Committee Member)
Tracy L. Tylka, PhD (Committee Member)
174 p.
Psychology
attentional biases; information processing; at-risk populations; eating disorders

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Tressler, D. S. (2008). Attentional biases in women at risk for eating disorders: A comparison of three cogntive tasks [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1228181985

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Tressler, Danette. Attentional biases in women at risk for eating disorders: A comparison of three cogntive tasks. 2008. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1228181985.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Tressler, Danette. "Attentional biases in women at risk for eating disorders: A comparison of three cogntive tasks." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1228181985

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1228181985
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.