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Updated: Aug 30, 2026

A Computer-Based Platform for Aiding Clinicians in Eating Disorder Analysis and Diagnosis
Published on: May 10, 2022
Processing fat-related information in individuals at risk for developing an eating disorder
F Richard Ferraro1, Melissa Andres, Lisa Stromberg
1Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks 58202-8380, USA. f_ferraro@und.nodak.edu
Abstract:
The authors examined the effect that being at risk for developing an eating disorder has on the lexical processing of words related to fat and words not related to fat. Individuals (n = 17) at risk for developing an eating disorder were compared with controls (n = 31) using a lexical decision task in which fat-related words (e.g., large), unrelated words (e.g., fair), neutral words (e.g., post), and pseudowords (e.g., flirp) were given. The results revealed an expected Group x Stimuli interaction for reaction times indicating that at-risk individuals were significantly faster at processing fat-related words than words unrelated to fat. The authors discuss these results within the context of how fat-related stimuli are processed in at-risk individuals and how models of information processing can aid in the interpretation and understanding of eating disorders.
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