Overduin J, Jansen A, Louwerse E
Department of Experimental Abnormal Psychology, Limburg Univesity, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Int J Eat Disord. 1995 Nov;18(3):277-85. doi: 10.1002/1098-108x(199511)18:3<277::aid-eat2260180310>3.0.co;2-3.
The Stroop task is aimed at assessing attentional bias. Words are displayed one by one on a computer screen and subjects are instructed to name the color in which every word is printed. The attentional bias is supposed to be reflected in the extent to which the word meanings interfere with the speed of color naming: The longer the color naming latency, the larger the attentional bias. Experiments using this task have demonstrated attentional bias for eating and body shape-related words in bulimic, anorexic, and restrained subjects. Explanations of these results have generally been formulated in terms of restricted food intake or emotional concerns about food and body shape-related themes. In contrast, in the present article it was proposed that Stroop interference might reflect a tendency either to withdraw or approach food or body shape-related stimuli.
Fifty-one subjects (25 unrestrained, 26 restrained) were administered a Stroop task containing neutral, food, and body shape-related words. There were two conditions to which subjects were randomly allocated: the "appetizer" and "no-appetizer" condition. The appetizer was a bit of pudding to be ingested by the subject just before the Stroop task. Following the Stroop task an ice cream taste test was presented in which the subjects were allowed to eat as much as they liked. The amount of ice cream eaten was registered secretly.
The results show that in unrestrained subjects Stroop interference for food words was found only in the appetizer condition. Restrained subjects, however, showed a permanent interference for food words. A significant correlation of .58 between Stroop food-word interference and ice cream intake was found only in unrestrained subjects. In restrained eaters the correlation was near 0. No effect of condition or restraint was found on Stroop body shape-word interference.
The findings indicate that (1) ingestion of an appetizer seems to have evoked an attentional bias for food words in nonrestraints that correlated with food intake; (2) restrained eaters showed continuous attentional bias. This appears to support the urge-to-act explanation of Stroop interference. The lack of correlation between restraints' attentional bias and ad lib food intake could have been caused by inhibition of approach which is one of the characteristics of restrained eating: The present procedure seems not to have triggered disinhibited eating in these subjects. Among other things it is concluded that Stroop interference, as a measure of "craving" triggered by food cue, might be a useful aid in assessing the risk of relapse in treated binge eating patients.
斯特鲁普任务旨在评估注意偏向。单词逐一显示在电脑屏幕上，要求受试者说出每个单词所印颜色。注意偏向被认为反映在单词含义对颜色命名速度的干扰程度上：颜色命名潜伏期越长，注意偏向越大。使用该任务的实验已证明，暴食症患者、厌食症患者和节食者对与饮食及体型相关的单词存在注意偏向。对这些结果的解释通常是从食物摄入量受限或对与食物和体型相关主题的情感关注方面来阐述的。相比之下，在本文中提出，斯特鲁普干扰可能反映了回避或趋近与食物或体型相关刺激的倾向。
51名受试者（25名非节食者，26名节食者）接受了一项包含中性、食物和体型相关单词的斯特鲁普任务。受试者被随机分配到两种条件下：“开胃菜”和“无开胃菜”条件。开胃菜是一点布丁，受试者在斯特鲁普任务前食用。在斯特鲁普任务之后进行了一项冰淇淋口味测试，受试者可以想吃多少就吃多少。暗中记录所吃冰淇淋的量。
结果表明，在非节食者中，仅在开胃菜条件下发现对食物单词的斯特鲁普干扰。然而，节食者对食物单词表现出持续干扰。仅在非节食者中发现斯特鲁普食物单词干扰与冰淇淋摄入量之间存在显著的0.58的相关性。在节食者中，相关性接近0。未发现条件或节食对斯特鲁普体型单词干扰有影响。
研究结果表明：（1）食用开胃菜似乎在非节食者中引发了对食物单词的注意偏向，且该偏向与食物摄入量相关；（2）节食者表现出持续的注意偏向。这似乎支持了对斯特鲁普干扰的冲动行为解释。节食者的注意偏向与随意进食量之间缺乏相关性，可能是由于趋近抑制所致，这是节食饮食的特征之一：当前程序似乎并未在这些受试者中引发去抑制性进食。除此之外，得出的结论是，作为由食物线索引发的“渴望”的一种测量方法，斯特鲁普干扰可能有助于评估接受治疗的暴饮暴食患者的复发风险。
