Bulimic symptoms and mood predict food relevant Stroop interference in women with troubled eating patterns.

Cognitive processing differences based on attentional biases of words pertaining to eating disorders were investigated to assess people's pathological thoughts. Participants were 165 undergraduate women (mean age=19.2) at a large Midwestern university. This Stroop task that included color identification of three word groups (food-related words, neutral words, and color words) was administered to measure differential speed in cognitive processing of salient words in individuals with and without troubled eating patterns. As predicted by the moderator hypothesis, a statistically significant interaction effect between bulimic symptoms and negative mood was found on food-related reaction time. Post hoc analysis of the interaction showed that women endorsing more bulimic symptoms responded slower to food-related cues than women with fewer bulimic symptoms among individuals who reported negative mood. The study results indicate that women who have problematic eating patterns and experience negative mood are hyperattentive to food-related cues.