The Effect of Attentional Bias Modification Towards Food Cues on Attention of Obese Women

Subject Areas : Psychological Models and Methods

M. R Taghavi ¹ , A.R Tavoosi ² , M. A Goudarzi ³

1 - استاد گروه روان‌شناسی بالینی، دانشگاه شیراز، شیراز، ایران
2 - دانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد گروه روان‌شناسی بالینی، دانشگاه شیراز.
3 - استاد گروه روان‌شناسی بالینی، دانشگاه شیراز، شیراز، ایران.

Received: 2015-06-12 Accepted : 2020-02-08 Published : 2016-11-10

Keywords: Obesity, Attentional Bias, Attentional Bias Modification, Food Stimuli, Probe Dot Task,

Abstract :

This study examined the effect of attentional bias modification related to food’s stimuli in obese women. The present study used Pretest–Posttest Design with experimental and control groups. To this end, 35 obese women, matched in two separate groups based on weight, age and education level, participated in the study. First, amount of attentional bias toward food words evaluated using probe dot task. Then, attentional bias in one group modified with probe dot task and other groupreceived aplacebo. Again,the amountof attentional biastowardsfood stimuli in groupswas assessed todeterminethe effectiveness ofattentional biasmodification task. Results: The experimental group who received attentional bias modification task, comparing with control group, showed, significantly, less attentional bias towards food cues. Conclusion: Attentional biasmodification task in obese women were able to reduce the amount of attentional bias towards food cues. Thus, cognitive therapy, beside the other treatment, could help obese woman to be treated.

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