The influence of eating psychopathology on autobiographical memory specificity and social problem-solving

Abstract

The primary aim was to examine the role of mood and eating psychopathology on autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) and social problem solving (SPS). A further aim was to establish if AMS mediated the relationship between eating psychopathology and SPS. A non-clinical sample of 52 female undergraduates completed the autobiographical memory test (AMT), where they were asked to retrieve specific memories of events from their past in response to emotional cue words, and the meansend problem-solving task (MEPS), where they were asked to generate means of solving a series of social problems. Participants also completed the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. After controlling for mood, high scores on the EDI subscales, particularly Drive-for-Thinness, were associated with the retrieval of fewer specific and a greater proportion of categorical memories on the AMT.High EDI scores were also associated with the generation of fewer and less effective means on the MEPS. Furthermore, AMS fully mediated the relationship between eating psychopathology and SPS performance. The current findings have implications for individuals exhibiting high levels of eating psychopathology, as poor AMS and SPS are likely to impact negatively on their long term mood, psychological wellbeing and everyday social functioning.

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

“…calculation conducted using G*Power revealed that a sample size of 66 would be required to detect a medium effect size F 2 =0.17 (calculated from Ridout et al, 2015) in a multiple regression with a total of 5 predictors (3 tested and 2 control) with a power of 0.80 and an alpha level of 0.05, which suggests that our study was adequately powered.…”

“…4 Another cognitive function influenced by disordered eating is autobiographical memory (Dalgleish et al, 2003;Ridout et al, 2015), which refers to the retrieval of personal memories about past experiences and events. According to Conway and Pleydell-Pearce (2000), autobiographical knowledge is stored hierarchically with information about general summaries of events referred to as categoric memories (e.g.…”

“…There is considerable evidence that, when requested to retrieve a specific memory of an event lasting less than one day, depressed individuals and those who have experienced significant trauma tend to retrieve fewer specific memories and a greater number of categoric memories relative to healthy controls (Williams et al, 2007;Kleim & Ehlers, 2008;Summer, Griffith & Mineka, 2010). The tendency to retrieve fewer specific memories has also been observed in patients with AN (Nandrino et al, 2006) and BN (Laberg and Andersson, 2004) as well as participants with subclinical disordered eating (Ridout et al, 2015). A possible explanation for the reduced autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) in EDs is functional avoidance (Williams et al, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, as similar cognitive and autobiographical memory deficits occur in the pathology of depression and EDs, it is plausible that the autobiographical memory inflexibility seen in a nonclinical sample in relation to negative affect may also be evident in participants with non-clinical concerns about eating and body shape and weight. It is important to develop our understanding of how autobiographical memory is affected by disordered eating because reduced memory specificity has been associated with the maintenance and development of an ED, and with changes in quality of life (Ridout et al, 2015).…”

Negative mood induction effects on problem solving task in women with eating disorders: a multi-method examination

“…The Means-Ends Problem Solving (MEPS) tests an established procedure that challenges individuals to generate solutions to realistic problem scenarios (Spivack, Platt, & Shure, 1976). Individuals with BED and subclinical disordered eating tend to generate less effective solutions on this task (Ridout, Matharu, Sanders, & Wallis, 2015; Svaldi, Caffier, & Tuschen-Caffier, 2010). Other studies using realistic problem-solving scenarios found that individuals with AN and bulimia nervosa (BN) performed worse on the Anorexia and Bulimia Problem Inventory, with particular weakness in weight and eating related scenarios (Espelage, Quittner, Sherman, & Thompson, 2000; Holt & Espelage, 2002).…”