Alix Timko

... Brain finger-printing and my expert testimony on it have been ruled admissible in trial court in a murder case (Harrington v. State, 2001). ... Rosenfeld made demonstrably false statements regard-ing my sworn expert testimony in the Harrington case. ...

Chocolate cravings occur regularly in about 45% of American women. Approximately half of these women link their craving temporally to the menstrual cycle, with a significant proportion of cravings reportedly peaking around ovulation or the onset of menstruation. This study aimed to elucidate the correlates of menstrual craving versus non-cyclic craving. Questionnaires assessing the relationships between craving, eating behaviors, attitudes towards weight and shape, and general pathology were completed by 97 women. Menstrual craving was reported by 28.9% (n = 28) and was associated with potentially maladaptive weight- and eating-related behaviors and attitudes, including higher body mass index, elevated dietary restraint, less flexible control over intake, and more guilt associated with the consumption of chocolate. Findings point to potential mechanisms involved in the etiology of menstrual cravings, such as the view of craving as a response to abstinence from high-calorie foods in an attempt to manage cyclically occurring weight fluctuations.► Perimenstrual chocolate craving occurs in about 20% of American women. ► Evidence does not support role of hormonal fluctuations in the etiology of perimenstrual craving. ► Women who crave chocolate perimenstrually report more eating- and weight-related pathology. ► Perimenstrual restriction of high-calorie foods may cause some to crave these foods.

The present cross-sectional study investigated whether psychological flexibility mediates the association between self-concealment and disordered eating (DE) symptoms among non-clinical college students. Data of 209 male and female participants (nfemale = 165), aged 18–22 years old, were used for analyses. Self-concealment was found to be positively associated with DE symptoms (i.e., general eating disorder symptoms and eating disorder-related cognitions) and negatively associated with psychological flexibility. Psychological flexibility was inversely associated with DE symptoms. Finally, psychological flexibility was found to mediate the association between self-concealment and DE symptoms after accounting for gender, ethnic background, and body mass index (BMI).► Psychological flexibility is an underlying process of greater well-being. ► Self-concealment is positively associated with disordered eating symptoms. ► The study reveals that psychological flexibility accounts for the association.

Findings from an earlier weight reduction program indicated that control of eating behaviors could play a major role not only in weight loss, but also in weight maintenance. This study attempted to replicate the findings that in a weight reduction program high pretreatment Rigid Control (RC) is correlated with high Body Mass Index (BMI), high pre-treatment Flexible Control (FC) is

Research has suggested that mindfulness and acceptance may be important factors in the development, maintenance and treatment of both obesity and eating disorders. However, very few scales exist that apply constructs of acceptance and mindfulness to eating behavior. A measure of acceptance about food related thoughts would be especially beneficial in investigating links between acceptance and problematic eating, and in better understanding mechanisms of action of effective treatments for obesity and eating disorders. The Food Acceptance and Awareness Questionnaire (FAAQ) was developed to measure acceptance of urges and cravings to eat or the extent to which individuals might try to control or change these thoughts. The FAAQ is a self-report questionnaire made up of ten items each rated on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = very seldom true to 6 = always true). Higher scores indicate greater acceptance of motivations to eat. The FAAQ was given to a sample of 463 undergraduate students along with several other measures of eating behavior and other psychological variables. Concurrent associations with variables theorized to be closely linked (Eating Attitudes Test, EAT; the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire, DEBQ; body mass index, BMI) and not very closely linked (the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, DASS) were evaluated in order to indicate the new scale's convergent and divergent validity. These results demonstrated highly significant correlations with these measures in the expected direction, with stronger correlations for the theoretically-consistent variables than the theoretically-inconsistent variables. Exploratory factor analyses confirmed a structural two-factor model. Factor 1 seems to measure one's ability to regulate eating despite urges and cravings, and Factor 2 seems to measure desire to maintain internal control over eating thoughts. The FAAQ was also administered to a separate sample of 29 overweight or obese women enrolled in a weight loss program, and found to be predictive of weight loss. Taken together, results suggest that the FAAQ is a psychometrically sound instrument which might be a valuable tool for assessing acceptance of food related thoughts and urges.► FAAQ appears to be a valid and reliable measure. ► The FAAQ has a two factor structure: Acceptance and Willingness. ► Increases in FAAQ scores are associated with weight loss.

The freshman year of college has been identified as a time when some students experience large changes in their eating behaviors, body image, and weight. One factor that is predictive of changes in these variables is internalization of the thin ideal (i.e., the degree to which an individual has accepted societal values of thinness and applies these values to herself). However, given the limitation of self-report and previous research demonstrating the additional predictive validity implicit measurement provides, it may be important to develop an implicit paradigm for assessing internalization of the thin ideal. The Implicit Association Test is the most common implicit measurement technique. However this test is associational in nature, which reflects only one aspect of human cognition. The current study evaluates a newly-created implicit measure of internalization of the thin ideal that utilizes the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). In particular, the study investigates concurrent and prospective associations between internalization of the thin ideal and disordered eating, body image dissatisfaction, and weight in a group of women at the beginning and end of their freshman year in college. Results of the study indicate that weight, disordered eating and body image dissatisfaction increased during the freshman year, and that these were predicted by implicit internalization of the thin ideal at the beginning of the year. Moreover, the new implicit measure was predictive above and beyond any predictive ability of the explicit measure. Results indicate that the thin ideal IRAP can successfully predict changes in many variables of interest at the freshman year of college, and suggest it may be a beneficial screening tool to assess at-risk freshman. This study also highlights the need for additional implicit measures in the realm of body image and disordered eating.

Westenhoefer [(1991). Dietary restraint and disinhibition: Is restraint a homogeneous construct? Appetite, 16, 45–55] argued that dietary restraint may not be a homogeneous construct but instead a combination of rigid control (RC) and flexible control (FC) over eating. These concepts hold promise for understanding some of the conflicting data in the restraint field. Scores on measures of RC and FC are often subjected to a median split, resulting in a less powerful and less informative dichotomous variable. It may, therefore, be useful to develop normative ranges of scores on these measures from very low to very high restraint. Such normative ranges have been developed in a German population but may not be applicable to men and women in the United States. To that end, the current study subjected the RC and FC scales to standardization in a college population.

Dieting has developed a negative reputation among many researchers and health care professionals. However, ‘dieting’ can refer to a variety of behavioural patterns that are associated with different effects on eating and body weight. The wisdom of dieting depends on what kind of dieting is involved, who is doing it, and why. Thus, depending on what one means by the term, dieting can be quite harmful, merely ineffective or actually beneficial. The present paper considers examples of all three. In particular, we argue that judgements about the desirability of dieting should consider the likely consequences to particular individuals of engaging in, or not engaging in, dieting behaviour.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between patterns of meal replacement (MR) adherence and changes in outcomes during a behaviorally-oriented weight loss program. Data from the present study are based on sixty female participants (age: 29–62 years, BMI: 27.99–37.50 kg/m2). Participants were randomized into either a control or experimental condition, which tested the use of MRs during weight loss maintenance. Outcome measures included body weight, depression, physical activity, cognitive restraint, disinhibition, hunger, and binge eating collected at four assessment points. Within the experimental condition, we further examined adherence to MRs and its relationship with the outcome measures. We found evidence of differences at baseline on some measures (e.g., weight, physical activity and depression) while on others (cognitive restraint, disinhibition, and hunger), differences that emerged over the course of treatment. Further research is necessary to determine if there are measures associated with successful MR use that can be detected at baseline and if MR adherence itself leads to changes in eating behavior.

The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between rigid control (RC) and flexible control (FC) of eating behavior and their relationship to traditional weight, eating, and affective measurements in a large heterogeneous population. Participants were 639 underweight to obese male and female college students. Multiple regression analyses (MRA) revealed that high RC was associated with high Body Mass Index (BMI) and high Disinhibition (DIS), and high FC was associated with low BMI and low DIS in women. In men, high RC was associated with high BMI and high DIS, whereas FC was not related to BMI or DIS. Multiple regression analyses of BMI on RC and FC in the female subsample revealed that the control variables interact in such a way that the relationship between RC and BMI is stronger when FC is lower. In men, there was no interaction between these variables. This study is the first full replication of Westenhoefer's Gezügeltes Essen und Störbarkeit des Eβverhaltens: 2. Auflage. Göttingen: Verlag für Psychologie (Westenhoefer, 1996) findings regarding RC and FC and their relationship to weight (BMI) and Disinhibition (DIS) in women. This is also the only second study to use the expanded, more reliable versions of the RC and FC scales. Overall, high RC in women and men was associated with greater eating and affective pathology.

Restrained eaters who are and are not dieting to lose weight have shown opposite eating regulation patterns in past research. To better understand these differences, restraint theory and the Three-Factor Model of Dieting was used to generate differential predictions about the mean and variability of restrained dieters (RDs) and restrained nondieters (RNDs) on the eating inventory Cognitive Restraint (CR) scale and the Restraint Scale (RS). Unrestrained nondieters served as a reference group. Eighty normal-weight female college students completed the CR, RS, and a measure of weight cycling. RDs, relative to RNDs, obtained higher and more homogeneous scores on the Cognitive Restraint, and higher and more heterogeneous scores on the RS. A post hoc analysis found that RDs had a much greater weight cycling history than RNDs. These findings are most consistent with the Three-Factor Model of Dieting, but also point to needed revisions both in this model and in traditional restraint theory.