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Updated: Jun 2, 2026

A Computer-Based Platform for Aiding Clinicians in Eating Disorder Analysis and Diagnosis
Published on: May 10, 2022
Measuring state trait properties of detail processing and global integration ability in eating disorders
Amy Harrison1, Kate Tchanturia, Janet Treasure
1Eating Disorders Research Unit, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, 5th Floor, Bermondsey Wing, Guy's Hospital, London SE1 9RT, UK. amy.harrison@.kcl.ac.uk
Objectives:
Women with eating disorders (EDs) are reported to have strengths in local or detailed information processing and difficulties with coherence or global processing/integration.
Methods:
This study aimed to replicate these findings and additionally explore a global integration task which has not previously been reported for an ED group, the Fragmented Pictures Task (FPT). Two hundred and twenty-two women (50 with anorexia nervosa (AN), 48 with bulimia nervosa (BN), 35 recovered from AN and 89 controls (HC)) completed the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Task (RCFT) to measure global/local processing strategies, the Group Embedded Figures Task (GEFT) to measure local processing and the FPT to measure global integration.
Results:
Superior detail processing skills (GEFT) and a tendency to utilise detail processing strategies (RCFT) were associated with having AN, BN and being in recovery from AN. Global integration difficulties (FPT) were only observed in acute AN, whereas participants in the BN and recovered group performed similarly to HCs.
Conclusions:
People currently ill with, and recovered from EDs are skilled at detail processing. The acute phase of AN is associated with difficulties in global integration.
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