Restrained eating and memory specificity

Abstract

(Chris Ball) not for publication 1-757-221 1760 (office); 1-757-221 3896 (fax)Restrained Eating and 2 AbstractAutobiographical memories are personal experiences that we store across our life-span. A reduced ability to retrieve specific autobiographical experiences has been reported for a number of clinical populations. Previous research has found that the size of the memory specificity effect can predict disorder occurrence, severity, and treatment success. The current research examined whether a similar relationship could be found between memory specificity and restrained eating in a female college student population.Participants retrieved autobiographical memories that related to cue-words associated with dieting and body image. Individual differences in restrained eating were measured with the Restraint Scale (RS). Participants who scored higher on the Concern-withDieting sub-scale of the RS retrieved fewer specific autobiographical memories regardless of their current dieting activity. The memory specificity effect has the potential to serve as a predictor of eating disorder occurrence and treatment success, and may also assist with the development of interventions targeting such disorders.

Characteristics of Disorder‐Related Autobiographical Memory in Acute Anorexia Nervosa Patients

“…Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies such as emotion avoidance and rumination are proposed to contribute to the maintenance of AN (Racine & Wildes, 2014;Rawal, Park, & Williams, 2010). Therefore, AMT parameters might be important for diagnosis, therapy evaluation and prognosis (Ball, Singer, Kemps, & Tiggemann, 2010).…”

Autobiographical Memory in Adolescent Girls with Anorexia Nervosa

“…Autobiographical memory (AM) is the storage of all the memories related to personal experiences that contribute to shape one's life (Ball, Singer, Kemps & Tiggeman, 2010). It is the place where cognition, personality and the individual's cognitive functions, parts of the self, narrative abilities and affect regulation meet (Conway & Rubin, 1993).…”

The influence of mood and attitudes towards eating on cognitive and autobiographical memory flexibility in female university students

“…The results of a power 1 We did not assess Body Mass Index (BMI) as we were looking at eating concerns in a healthy cohort. Furthermore, previous work has shown no relationship between BMI and autobiographical memory in clinical and subclinical samples with disordered eating (Ball et al, 2010;Bomba et al, 2014;Laberg and Andersson, 2004). Similarly, Roberts et al (2010) reported no relationship between BMI and set-shifting performance in patients with EDs, as did Giel et al (2012).…”