IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT MEMORY FOR SHAPE, BODY-WEIGHT, AND FOOD-RELATEDWORDS IN PATIENTS WITH ANOREXIA-NERVOSA AND NONDIETING CONTROLS

Twelve patients with anorexia nervosa and 12 control participants watc hed a series of 64 words. There were 4 word types: anorexia related, p ositive, negative, and neutral. The last 3 types were anorexia unrelat ed. Anorexia-related words had the same affective valence as the neutr al control words. Next, the participants completed an explicit memory test(cued recall) and an implicit memory test (word stem completion). Results showed a strong explicit memory bias for anorexia-related word s for patients with anorexia nervosa but not for nondieting controls. There was no evidence for a similar bias in implicit memory. Results a re discussed in the context of cognitive biases in psychopathology.