Investigating the ‘Jumping to Conclusions’ Bias in People with Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

'Jumping to conclusions' (JTC) is an established reasoning bias in people with psychosis and delusion proneness. Research investigating the JTC bias in other clinical populations remains in its infancy. This study investigated whether individuals with anorexia (AN) displayed the JTC bias compared with healthy controls and, if so, whether the bias was greater in relation to emotionally salient information. The study also investigated whether delusionality was correlated with the JTC bias. JTC was measured using the 'beads task'. Three versions were employed: the standard version and two emotionally salient tasks. Results indicated that a majority (55.6%) of people with AN (n=26) displayed poor insight into their eating disorder beliefs but did not display an elevated JTC compared with healthy controls (n=33) on any task. The level of delusionality in the AN group was not correlated with JTC bias. Findings suggest that although a majority of people with AN demonstrated limited insight, they did not display the JTC bias. This may suggest that poor insight in eating disorders has different characteristics to that found in psychotic disorders, which may suggest that differences are needed in relation to how they are treated using psychological means. However, this was a small study, and study replication is required.

Overvalued ideas or delusions in anorexia nervosa?

“…BABS scores were also correlated with drive for thinness, but not with BMI or illness duration, similar to the study by Hartmann et al (2013). A more recent study by McKenna et al (2014) reported similar findings, with 25.9% of AN patients lacking insight and 29.6% demonstrating poor insight into their dominant eating disorder-related belief.…”

Data Gathering Bias: Trait Vulnerability to Psychotic Symptoms?

“…In order to further examine the trait-or-state issue it may be productive to examine JTC in relation to low grade, or subclinical, psychotic experiences in other diagnostic categories. For example, anorexia patients did not display elevated JTC and JTC was not associated with level of delusionality in this group [ 32 ]. Similarly, patients with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) did not display elevated JTC relative to controls although poor insight in BDD was associated with elevated JTC [ 33 ].…”

The Role of Working Memory for Cognitive Control in Anorexia Nervosa versus Substance Use Disorder

“…Relating epistemic foraging to excessive cognitive control, as seen for example in AN, could reflect heightened ruminations, local versus global thinking and attention to detail ( Kothari et al, 2013 ) that support the updating of prior, rigid cognitive models concerning eating, weight, shape, and food ( Dell’Osso et al, 2016 ). Conversely, in studies measuring the ‘jumping to conclusions (JTC)’ bias – indicative of less epistemic foraging and reduced cognitive load – people with AN do not show such a bias ( Wittorf et al, 2012 ; McKenna et al, 2014 ). Whereas, those with JTC bias have reduced epistemic foraging, collecting less information to arrive at a decision, which is linked to WM deficits and delusional thinking ( Garety et al, 2013 ).…”