Autobiographical Memory Specificity and Restrained Eating: Examining the Influence of Priming with Images of Healthy and Unhealthy Foods

Overview

Journal Eat Weight Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2023 Jun 21

PMID 37341829

Authors

Deborah J Wallis

Jessica Moss

Bethany Varnam

Barbara Dritschel

Nathan Ridout

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Dietary restraint has been linked to deficits in the ability to recall detailed memories of personally experienced events (referred to as autobiographical memory specificity). As priming with healthy foods increases the salience of restraint it would be expected to lead to greater deficits in memory specificity.

Objective: To determine if priming word cues with images of healthy or unhealthy foods would influence the specificity of memory retrieval, and if deficits in memory specificity would be more evident in those reporting higher levels of dietary restraint, or currently dieting.

Methods: Sixty female undergraduates self-reported if they were currently dieting and completed measures of mood, restraint, and disinhibition, and a modified version of the autobiographical memory task. Participants were presented with positive and negative words (unrelated to eating concerns) and asked to retrieve a specific memory in response to each cue. A food image was shown prior to each word cue; half of the participants were primed with images of healthy foods and half with images of unhealthy foods.

Results: As expected, participants primed with healthy foods retrieved fewer specific memories than did those primed with unhealthy foods. However, neither restraint nor current dieting behaviour was associated with memory specificity.

Conclusions: Differences in memory specificity between the priming conditions cannot be explained in terms of increased salience of restraint. However, it is plausible that unhealthy images led to an increase in positive affect, which in turn improved memory specificity.

Level Of Evidence: Level I: Evidence obtained from: at least one properly designed experimental study.

References

Green M, Jones A, Smith I, Cobain M, Williams J, Healy H . Impairments in working memory associated with naturalistic dieting in women: no relationship between task performance and urinary 5-HIAA levels. Appetite. 2003; 40(2):145-53. DOI: 10.1016/s0195-6663(02)00137-x. View

Harrar V, Toepel U, Murray M, Spence C . Food's visually perceived fat content affects discrimination speed in an orthogonal spatial task. Exp Brain Res. 2011; 214(3):351-6. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-011-2833-6. View

Schonfeld S, Ehlers A . Overgeneral memory extends to pictorial retrieval cues and correlates with cognitive features in posttraumatic stress disorder. Emotion. 2006; 6(4):611-21. DOI: 10.1037/1528-3542.6.4.611. View

Minas R, Poor M, Dennis A, Bartelt V . A prime a day keeps calories away: The effects of supraliminal priming on food consumption and the moderating role of gender and eating restraint. Appetite. 2016; 105:494-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2016.05.022. View

Toepel U, Knebel J, Hudry J, le Coutre J, Murray M . The brain tracks the energetic value in food images. Neuroimage. 2008; 44(3):967-74. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.10.005. View

Zigmond A, SNAITH R . The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1983; 67(6):361-70. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1983.tb09716.x. View

Sumner J, Griffith J, Mineka S . Overgeneral autobiographical memory as a predictor of the course of depression: a meta-analysis. Behav Res Ther. 2010; 48(7):614-25. PMC: 2878838. DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.03.013. View

Charbonnier L, van Meer F, van der Laan L, Viergever M, Smeets P . Standardized food images: A photographing protocol and image database. Appetite. 2015; 96:166-173. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2015.08.041. View

Goddard L, Dritschel B, Burton A . Role of autobiographical memory in social problem solving and depression. J Abnorm Psychol. 1996; 105(4):609-16. DOI: 10.1037//0021-843x.105.4.609. View

10.

Ridout N, Dritschel B, Matthews K, OCarroll R . Autobiographical memory specificity in response to verbal and pictorial cues in clinical depression. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2016; 51:109-15. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.01.002. View

11.

Ball C, Singer S, Kemps E, Tiggemann M . Restrained eating and memory specificity. Appetite. 2010; 55(2):359-62. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2010.06.001. View

12.

Williams J, Broadbent K . Autobiographical memory in suicide attempters. J Abnorm Psychol. 1986; 95(2):144-9. DOI: 10.1037//0021-843x.95.2.144. View

13.

Ridout N, Matharu M, Sanders E, Wallis D . The influence of eating psychopathology on autobiographical memory specificity and social problem-solving. Psychiatry Res. 2015; 228(3):295-303. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.06.030. View

14.

Piech R, Pastorino M, Zald D . All I saw was the cake. Hunger effects on attentional capture by visual food cues. Appetite. 2009; 54(3):579-82. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.11.003. View

15.

Moore S, Zoellner L . Overgeneral autobiographical memory and traumatic events: an evaluative review. Psychol Bull. 2007; 133(3):419-37. PMC: 2665927. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.3.419. View

16.

Stunkard A, Messick S . The three-factor eating questionnaire to measure dietary restraint, disinhibition and hunger. J Psychosom Res. 1985; 29(1):71-83. DOI: 10.1016/0022-3999(85)90010-8. View

17.

Nandrino J, Doba K, Lesne A, Christophe V, Pezard L . Autobiographical memory deficit in anorexia nervosa: emotion regulation and effect of duration of illness. J Psychosom Res. 2006; 61(4):537-43. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2006.02.008. View

18.

GREEN M, Rogers P . Impairments in working memory associated with spontaneous dieting behaviour. Psychol Med. 1998; 28(5):1063-70. DOI: 10.1017/s0033291798007016. View

19.

Papies E, Hamstra P . Goal priming and eating behavior: enhancing self-regulation by environmental cues. Health Psychol. 2010; 29(4):384-8. DOI: 10.1037/a0019877. View

20.

Dalgleish T, Williams J, Golden A, Perkins N, Barrett L, Barnard P . Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory and depression: the role of executive control. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2007; 136(1):23-42. PMC: 2225543. DOI: 10.1037/0096-3445.136.1.23. View