Cognitive tasks used as dependent variables in objectification research
anxiety
We selected a cognitive task for our key dependent variable that differs from those used in other studies. The math tests used in several previous studies assess advanced math skills [We did not impose a time limit for our cognitive task. Participants were simply instructed to solve the problems “as quickly and as accurately as possible.” This allowed us to compare the total time taken to complete the task between conditions, arguably a better measure of distraction than accuracy alone [It is possible our working memory task created more anxiety than other attention-based tasks used in this area of research (e.g., the modified Stroop task [The narrowness of the sample in the current study was a key limitation. Participants attended a highly selective university where the average math ACT/SAT score of admitted students is in the 90-98th national percentile. Although the task was designed to task working memory regardless of math expertise and did not show evidence of ceiling effects, the participants likely had higher motivation and capacity to succeed at the task (even under objectifying conditions) than a more varied sample might have. However, scores on the working memory task still showed meaningful variability in terms of both accuracy and latency. Additionally, previous research testing the impact of objectification on cognitive tasks also used samples of college women [