Adults with overweight or obesity use less efficient memory strategies compared to adults with healthy weight on a verbal list learning task modified with food words. (1st February 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Eichen, Dawn M.; Kang Sim, Dong-Jin E.; Appleton-Knapp, Sara L.; Strong, David R.; Boutelle, Kerri N.
• Is Part Of: Appetite. Volume 181(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-02-01
• Subjects: Episodic memory -- Semantic clustering -- Obesity; Food habits -- Periodicals; Appetite -- Periodicals; Appetite disorders -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 306.4613
• DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106402
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6663

Abstract

Abstract: Several studies suggest poorer episodic memory among adults with overweight (OW) relative to those with healthy weight (HW); however, few have used food stimuli. To understand the salience of food-related items when assessing memory, we adapted an episodic memory task, by replacing some non-food words with snack foods. Participants were 96 weight-loss seeking adults with OW compared to 48 adults with HW from the community matched on age, gender, ethnicity, and education. Overall memory ability was similar, although a trend showed the adults with HW performed better than adults with OW on immediate recall ( d = 0.32, p = 0.07). However, there were clear differences in the use of learning strategies. Adults with HW utilized sematic clustering more effectively than adults with OW during all test phases ( d s = 0.44–0.62; p s ≤ 0.01). Adults with HW also utilized serial clustering more effectively ( d = 0.51; p < 0.01). Adults with HW showed better semantic clustering for both food and non-food words during immediate and short delay recall ( d s = 0.42–0.78; p s ≤ 0.01) but semantic clustering was only better for the non-food category at long delay ( d = 0.55; p < 0.01). These results show that adults with OW utilized less efficient learning strategies throughout the task and food-related content may impact learning. Clinically, these findings may suggest that weight-loss treatments should consider incorporating the teaching of learning and memory strategies to help increase utilization of new skills.