Selective processing of food and body size words: application of the Stroop Test with obese restrained eaters, anorexics, and normals.

The specificity of the retardation effect on the Stroop Naming task with eating disorder clients was examined by comparing anorexic patients and normal weight controls with obese restrained eaters. Although the expected differences between normal weight controls and anorexics were found for color naming of food and body size words, obese restrained eaters were not differentiated from the clinical sample. It is suggested, therefore, that the Stroop phenomena do not have a precise relationship to the extent of psychopathology and that factors such as the ability to "fake" the test and poor concentration leading to general slowing, may explain the results.