OBJECTIVE: This paper reports on the development and utility of a new implicit measure of appearance-related information processing. METHODS: A 20-item word-stem completion task was constructed, in which each word stem could be completed with either an appearance-related word or at least one non-appearance alternative. The measure was tested in four different experiments, most investigating the impact of acute exposure to media-portrayed thin idealised female images. RESULTS: Exposure to media images or other appearance-related material led to the generation of more appearance- or weight-related words in both female and male samples. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the word-stem task has empirical utility as a simple, self-paced and sensitive outcome measure in experimental studies of media exposure. We conceptualise the word-stem task as a measure of appearance- and weight-schema activation.
OBJECTIVE: This paper reports on the development and utility of a new implicit measure of appearance-related information processing. METHODS: A 20-item word-stem completion task was constructed, in which each word stem could be completed with either an appearance-related word or at least one non-appearance alternative. The measure was tested in four different experiments, most investigating the impact of acute exposure to media-portrayed thin idealised female images. RESULTS: Exposure to media images or other appearance-related material led to the generation of more appearance- or weight-related words in both female and male samples. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that the word-stem task has empirical utility as a simple, self-paced and sensitive outcome measure in experimental studies of media exposure. We conceptualise the word-stem task as a measure of appearance- and weight-schema activation.
Authors: Yee Tak Derek Cheung; Antoinette Marie Lee; Sai Yin Ho; Edmund Tsze Shing Li; Tai Hing Lam; Susan Yun Sun Fan; Paul Siu Fai Yip Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2011-10-31 Impact factor: 3.295