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 val ence, the impaired color naming of body shape-related words among anorexics is a function of an associative priming effect. Anorexics (n = 34) and non clinical 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 a ssociative strength of the words within each category. Anorexics color name d body shape words as slowly as the highly interassociated neutral words. T his was interpreted in terms of the impaired color naming of body shape wor ds by anorexics reflecting the highly interconnected nature of body shape-r elated schemata in anorexia nervosa, rather than affective valence. The res ults are discussed in terms of their relationship to the general literature concerning the modified Stroop task.