THE ROLE OF SENSORY AND NONSENSORY FACTORS IN BODY-SIZE ESTIMATIONS OF EATING DISORDER SUBJECTS

Body size distortion of anorectic and bulimic subjects was compared to controls via a video-distortion technique. Subjects judged the whole body, chest, hips and stomach regions. An adaptive probit estimation ( APE) methodology examined separately the sensory and nonsensory compon ents of body image distortion. Eating disorder subjects overestimated body size more than control subjects. There were no significant differ ences between eating disorder groups, although there was more variabil ity in eating disorder subjects. Subjects overestimated more on whole body as compared to body regions. There were no differences in sensory sensitivity to detecting size differences between groups. Results ind icate that differences in body size distortion between eating disorder and control subjects are due exclusively to affective, nonsensory fac tors.