Processing fat-related information in individuals at risk for developing an eating disorder

The authors examined the effect that being at risk for developing an eating disorder has on the lexical processing of words related to fat and words not related to fat. Individuals (n = 17) at risk for developing an eating disorder were compared with controls (n = 31) using a lexical decision task in which fat-related words (e.g., large), unrelated words (e.g., fair), neutral words (e.g., post), and pseudowords (e.g., flirp) were given. The results revealed an expected Group x Stimuli interaction for reaction times indicating that at-risk individuals were significantly faster at processing fat-related words than words unrelated to fat. The authors discuss these results within the context of how fat-related stimuli are processed in at-risk individuals and how models of information processing can aid in the interpretation and understanding of eating disorders.