Research ReportThe specificity of restrained versus unrestrained eaters' responses to food cues: general desire to eat, or craving for the cued food?
Section snippets
Method
Participants. Participants were 132 female first year psychology undergraduate students, aged 17–47 years (M=21.2, SD=2.2). Participants received course credit for introductory psychology, and gave their written consent to participate in a study of food preferences. The 10-item Revised Restraint Scale (Polivy, Herman, & Howard, 1988) was used to divide participants into restrained (n=60)and unrestrained (n=72) eaters. The restraint scores ranged from 5 to 28. All subjects were classified as
Results
The data were analyzed by 3×2×2 ANOVAs. When significant main or interaction effects were found, post-hoc Newman–Keuls tests were performed to determine which means differed significantly. All differences between means presented below are supported by (p<0.05) significant Newman–Keuls post-hoc tests, unless otherwise stated.
Discussion
As in Fedoroff et al. (1997), restrained eaters in the present study ate more following exposure to food cues, for both the same food used by Fedoroff et al. (pizza) and a different food (cookies). These results replicate the enhanced response of restrained eaters to food cues found by Fedoroff et al. and extends this finding. As predicted, restrained eaters showed cue specificity, eating more only when they had previously been cued with that food. If they had not been cued with the food before
Acknowledgements
This research comprised part of the requirements for a PhD degree for the first author. Support was provided by a SSHRC grant to JP and CPH. Address correspondence to Ingrid C. Fedoroff, Department of Psychiatry, St Paul's Hospital, 1081 Burrard St, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 1Y6.
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