SELECTIVE PROCESSING OF FOOD AND BODY-SIZE WORDS - APPLICATION OF THESTROOP TEST WITH OBESE RESTRAINED EATERS, ANOREXICS, AND NORMALS

The specificity of the retardation effect on the Stroop Naming task wi th eating disorder clients was examined by comparing anorexic patients and normal weight controls with obese restrained eaters. Although the expected differences between normal weight controls and anorexics wer e found for color naming of food and body size words, obese restrained eaters were not differentiated from the clinical sample. It is sugges ted, therefore, that the Stroop phenomena do not have a precise relati onship to the extent of psychopathology and that factors such as the a bility to ''fake'' the test and poor concentration leading to general slowing, may explain the results. (C) 1994 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.