Impaired color naming of body shape-related words in anorexia nervosa: Affective valence or associative priming?

It was hypothesized that, rather than reflecting an effect of emotional valence, the impaired color naming of body shape-related words among anorexics is a function of an associative priming effect. Anorexics (n = 34) and nonclinical controls (n = 39) color named a set of body shape words, and three sets of affectively neutral words, varying in associative strength. It was found that, among nonclinical subjects, color-naming times reflected the associative strength of the words within each category. Anorexics color named body shape words as slowly as the highly interassociated neutral words. This was interpreted in terms of the impaired color naming of body shape words by anorexics reflecting the highly interconnected nature of body shape-related schemata in anorexia nervosa, rather than affective valence. The results are discussed in terms of their relationship to the general literature concerning the modified Stroop task.