Cognitive-behavioral assessment of response covariation of binge eating and depression in bulimics was investigated using a schema paradigm. Consistent with the hypothesis in the psychiatric literature that bulimia is "closely related to" affective disorder, similar sematic structures were expected to underlying ratings of conceptions of binge eating and depression. The assessment of schemata involved 10 bulimic, 10 dysphoric control, and 10 normal control females rating the the concepts "BINGE EATING" and "DEPRESSION" on nine semantic differential scales. The semantic differential ratings for each concept were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and discriminant function analysis. MANOVA results in conjunction with Duncan's multiple range test indicated that dysphoric subjects rated "DEPRESSION" as being stronger and less unpleasant than the other two groups. Classification of subjects based on the discriminant function from the semantic ratings of "BINGE EATING" achieved 57% accuracy, whereas the semantic ratings of "DEPRESSION" yielded 100% accuracy in classifying subjects. Canonical correlations revealed that the overall sematic structure underlying subjects' conceptions of binge eating versus depression were different. The results failed to support the hypothesis that similar semantic structures underlying conceptions of binge eating and depression.