Evidence for a perceptual mechanism relating body size misperception and eating disorder symptoms
Date
2019-02-13
Authors
Alexi, Joanna
Palermo, Romina
Rieger, Elizabeth
Bell, Jason
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Editrice Kurtis srl
Abstract
Purpose There are known and serious health risks associated with extreme body weights, including the development of
eating disorders. Body size misperceptions are particularly evident in individuals with eating disorders, compared to healthy
controls. The present research investigated whether serial dependence, a recently discovered bias in body size judgement,
is associated with eating disorder symptomatology. We additionally examined whether this bias operates on holistic body
representations or whether it works by distorting specific visual features.
Methods A correlational analysis was used to examine the association between serial dependence and eating disorder
symptomatology. We used a within-subjects experimental design to investigate the holistic nature of this misperception.
Participants were 63 young women, who judged the size of upright and inverted female body images using a visual analogue
scale and then completed the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) to assess eating disorder symptoms.
Results Our findings provide the first evidence of an association between serial dependence and eating disorder symptoms,
with significant and positive correlations between body size misperception owing to serial dependence and EDE-Q scores,
when controlling for Body Mass Index. Furthermore, we reveal that serial dependence is consistent with distortion of local
visual features.
Conclusions Findings are discussed in relation to the broader theories of central coherence, cognitive inflexibility, and multisensory integration difficulties, and as providing a candidate mechanism for body size misperception in an eating disorder
population.
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Keywords
Eating disorder symptoms, Serial dependence, Body inversion effect, Cognitive inflexibility
Citation
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Source
Eating and Weight Disorders
Type
Journal article
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Restricted until
2037-12-31
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