INSTITUTE OF PSYCHIATRY
EFFECTS OF MOOD ON ABILITY TO ADAPT COGNITIVE PROCESSES RESEARCH STUDY
What we did: Fifty four female participants who were identified as having thoughts relevant to those with an eating
disorder diagnosis, but no diagnosis themselves, were invited to participate in this study. All participants were randomly
allocated to receive a negative mood induction procedure or a comparable sham mood induction procedure prior to a
positive Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation training (CBM-I). CBM-I is a training program which aims to
change a person’s negative bias, so that they will interpret social situations in a more positive manner. Participants were
split into two groups, one of these gave participants a procedure which aimed to put them in a negative mood before
training (with the idea this would bring out the relevant thoughts/interpretations that we aimed to change). Both the
negative mood induction and sham control induction (to compare against) group were first tested on measure of eating
disorder symptoms, eating disorder behaviour and cognition. This was then followed by the mood induction procedure
itself and CBM-I training. Last, all participants were re-tested on the measures of symptoms, behaviour and cognition, to
see whether training was likely to have caused a difference.
In the negative mood induction group, participants were asked to read and then write out 10 negative self-referential
statements (e.g Disgraceful – I can sometimes be a disgrace to myself, to others and to society ) whilst listening to music
that aimed to also induce negative feelings. For the sham induction group, a similar procedure but instead participants
were asked to read and write neutral words and statements whilst listening to music deemed as being neutral in tone.
What we expected to find: We expected that both groups would show improvement on outcome measures (symptoms,
behaviour and cognition) but that the negative mood induction group would show the greatest improvement. This is
because we predicted that the negative mood induction procedure would activate a participant’s negative cognitions,
which therefore would make them more susceptible to change in the CBM-I training.
What we did find: Both groups, negative mood induction and sham induction, did show improvement in the measures
of cognition after mood induction procedure and CBM-I training, however there were no significant differences between
the two groups. For the behavioural task, participants in the negative mood induction group showed increases in the
number of chocolates eaten, which could suggest that training had helped the negative mood group to a greater extent,
in the reduction of eating disorder like behaviour. However as no other measures showed improvement, further
research is needed to clarify our findings.
Who do I contact if I have any further questions?: If you have any further questions or concerns about the study or took
part in the study yourself and are concerned about what will now be done with your data please do get in touch. Please
do not hesitate to contact the Chief Investigator Dr Jenny Yiend at jenny.yiend@kcl.ac.uk, the lead research assistant
Sinem Tekes on sinem.tekes@kcl.ac.uk, or further research students on the project Sarah Harper on
sarah.harper@kcl.ac.uk and Sook Yee Yong at Sook_yee.yong@kcl.ac.uk.
Finally, thankyou for supporting the project, we have really valued your input.