Cobb Alexandra, Rieger Elizabeth, Bell Jason
1Research School of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia.
2Research School of Psychology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT Australia.
J Eat Disord. 2018 Sep 14;6:25. doi: 10.1186/s40337-018-0211-5. eCollection 2018.
Attentional biases for body shape and weight information have been found in people with eating disorders, indicating disorder-specific changes in the way this information is processed. To date, the literature has focused on the initial capture of attention, with little research on the maintenance of attention to shape/weight-related information. The current study aims to investigate the occurrence of attentional maintenance through the use of an Inhibition of Return task to shape and weight stimuli in those with and without an eating disorder.
Three groups of female participants between the ages of 16-30 years undertook an Inhibition of Return task with target images of female bodies and control images of animals. The groups were an eating disorder group ( = 20), a High shape/weight based self-worth group ( = 23), and a Low shape/weight based self-worth group ( = 26).
The results indicated differential patterns of Inhibition of Return between the High and Low shape/weight based self-worth groups. The High group displayed increased inhibition of return for the shape/weight stimuli relative to control stimuli, while the Low group displayed reduced inhibition of return for the shape/weight stimuli compared to control stimuli. The ED group displayed a similar pattern of results to the High group, but this did not reach significance.
The current findings indicate that young women without an eating disorder who base their self-worth on shape/weight display a pattern of avoidance of shape/weight stimuli that is in direct contrast to those at low risk of developing eating disorders. The possible implications of these specific patterns of inhibition of return across those at varying levels of risk for an eating disorder are discussed along with their implications for intervention approaches.
在饮食失调患者中发现了对体型和体重信息的注意偏向，这表明在处理这些信息的方式上存在特定于该疾病的变化。迄今为止，文献主要关注注意力的初始捕捉，而对维持对体型/体重相关信息的注意力的研究较少。当前的研究旨在通过对患有和未患有饮食失调症的人群使用返回抑制任务来研究对体型和体重刺激的注意力维持情况。
三组年龄在16至30岁之间的女性参与者进行了一项返回抑制任务，任务中有女性身体的目标图像和动物的对照图像。这三组分别是饮食失调组（n = 20）、基于体型/体重的高自我价值组（n = 23）和基于体型/体重的低自我价值组（n = 26）。
结果表明，基于体型/体重的高自我价值组和低自我价值组之间存在不同的返回抑制模式。高自我价值组相对于对照刺激对体型/体重刺激的返回抑制增加，而低自我价值组与对照刺激相比对体型/体重刺激的返回抑制减少。饮食失调组的结果模式与高自我价值组相似，但未达到显著水平。
当前的研究结果表明，那些将自我价值建立在体型/体重基础上的未患饮食失调症的年轻女性表现出一种避免体型/体重刺激的模式，这与患饮食失调症风险较低的女性形成了直接对比。讨论了这些在不同饮食失调风险水平人群中特定的返回抑制模式的可能影响及其对干预方法的意义。
