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The study investigated the effects of anorexia nervosa (AN) on the three components of working memory, and the extent to which these could be attributed to preoccupying cognitions concerning food, weight and body shape.

Participants were 24 young women with AN aged from 17 to 27 years. Their performance on the Double Span Memory task was compared against that of 24 dieting and 24 non‐dieting controls. The Double Span Memory task presents a series of common objects in randomly chosen locations of a 4 × 4 grid, and requires participants to name the objects (phonological loop), point to the locations (visuo‐spatial sketch pad) or both (central executive). Participants also completed a self‐report measure of preoccupying thoughts about food, weight and body shape, as well as a measure of crystallised intelligence.

Relative to non‐dieting controls, dieters and AN …