Search

Introduction: Depressive symptoms have been linked to difficulties in revising established negative beliefs in response to novel positive information. Recent predictive processing accounts have suggested that this bias in belief updating may be related to a blunted processing of positive prediction errors at the neural level. In this proof-of-concept study, pupil dilation in response to unexpected positive emotional information was examined as a psychophysiologicalmarker of an attenuated processing of positive prediction errors associated with depressive symptoms. Methods: Participants (N = 34) completed a modified version of the emotional Bias Against Disconfirmatory Evidence (BADE) task in which scenarios initially suggest negative interpretations that are later either confirmed or disconfirmed by additional information. Pupil dilation in response to the confirmatory and disconfirmatory information was recorded. Results: Behavioral results showed that depressive symptoms were related to difficulties in revising negative interpretations despite disconfirmatory positive information. The eye tracking results pointed to a reduced pupil response to unexpected positive information among people with elevated depressive symptoms. Discussion: Altogether, the present study demonstrates that the adapted emotional BADE task can be appropriate for examining psychophysiological aspects such as changes in pupil size along with behavioral responses. Furthermore, the results suggest that depression may be characterized by deviations in both behavioral (i.e., reduced updating of negative beliefs) and psychophysiological (i.e., decreased pupil dilation) responses to unexpected positive information. Future work should focus on a larger sample including clinically depressed patients to further explore these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpretation biases and inflexibility (i.e., difficulties revising interpretations) have been linked to increased internalizing symptoms. Although adolescence is a developmental period characterized by novel social situations and increased vulnerability to internalizing disorders, no studies have examined interpretation inflexibility in adolescents. Additionally, no studies (on adolescents or adults) have examined interpretation flexibility as a protective factor against adverse outcomes of interpersonal events. Using a novel task and a 28-day diary we examined relations among interpretation bias and inflexibility, internalizing symptoms, and negative interpersonal events in a sample of children and adolescents (N = 159, ages 9–18). At baseline, negative interpretation bias was positively correlated with social anxiety symptoms, and positive interpretation bias negatively correlated with social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Inflexible positive interpretations were correlated with higher social anxiety and depressive symptoms, while inflexible negative interpretations were correlated with higher social anxiety. Finally, interpretation inflexibility moderated daily associations between negative interpersonal events and depressive symptoms in daily life, such that higher inflexibility was associated with stronger associations between interpersonal events and subsequent depressive symptoms, potentially increasing depressive symptom instability. These results suggest that interpretation biases and inflexibility may act as both risk and protective factors for adolescent anxiety and depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional bias in explicit memory is theorized to play a prominent role in the etiology, maintenance, and recurrence of depression. Even though this cognitive bias is regarded as one of the most robust phenomena in depression, its magnitude and boundary conditions in depression are currently unknown. This review presents two three-level meta-analyses to estimate the overall effect size and identify moderators of explicit memory bias in depression. Meta-analysis I (153 studies, 686 contrasts) revealed a small overall effect size for naturalistic explicit memory bias in depression, g = 0.241, 95% CI [0.179, 0.304]. The magnitude of the overall effect was moderated by emotional valence of stimuli, operational definition of memory bias, depth of processing during encoding, explicit memory task, and the (non-)verbal nature of stimuli. Equivalent effect sizes were found for minors and adults as well as for clinical and subclinical depression. Remarkably, a nonsignificant effect size emerged for remitted depression. Following up on the latter finding, Meta-analysis II (21 studies, 80 contrasts) examined explicit memory bias in remitted depression under naturalistic conditions and under mood/stress induction. Results yielded a nonsignificant overall effect size, g = 0.131, 95% CI [−0.045, 0.307], but a significant effect size for study conditions with mood or stress induction, g = 0.273, 95% CI [0.004, 0.542]. Both meta-analyses indicated high levels of heterogeneity, even after accounting for variation explained by sample and study characteristics. The findings are consistent with the view that depression is characterized by an explicit memory bias that may persist beyond a depressive episode. These findings have implications for cognitive theories of vulnerability to depression as well as clinical interventions. Public Significance Statement: This meta-analytic review suggests that individuals with current depressive symptoms exhibit a bias in how they remember emotional information. This bias occurs particularly when individuals with depression try to remember positive information. Individuals who recovered from depression may show a memory bias only when experiencing a negative mood or feeling stressed. For persons who currently suffer from depressive symptoms and for persons who recovered but feel down or stressed, interventions may focus on improving difficulties in retrieving positive memories such as by repeated training of positive memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research indicates that difficulties across multiple socioemotional functioning domains (e.g., social emotion expression/regulation, response to social elicitors of emotion) and negatively biased interpretations of ambiguous social situations may affect eating disorder symptoms. The impact of inflexible interpretations of social situations on eating disorder symptoms is less clear. The present study therefore examined relations between inflexible and biased social interpretations, socioemotional functioning, and eating disorder symptoms. Method: A total of 310 participants from the general population, recruited from an online crowdsourcing platform, completed measures of socioemotional functioning (e.g., rejection sensitivity, negative social exchange), eating disorder symptoms, and positive and negative interpretation bias and inflexibility on a single measurement occasion. Results: Socioemotional functioning impairments (Pillai's trace = 0.11, p <.001), but not negative (β =.07, p =.162) or positive (β = −.01, p =.804) interpretation bias or inflexible interpretations (β =.04, p =.446), were associated with eating disorder symptoms in multiple regression models. In network analyses controlling statistically for multiple markers of socioemotional functioning, eating disorder symptoms were directly associated with negative (but not positive) interpretation bias. Inflexible interpretations were indirectly linked to symptoms via co‐dampening of positive emotions. Exploratory causal discovery analyses suggested that several socioemotional functioning variables (social anxiety, depression, negative social exchange) may cause eating disorder symptoms. Conclusions: Consistent with cognitive‐interpersonal models of disordered eating, our results suggest that less accurate (biased, inflexible) interpretations of social information contribute to patterns of cognition (anxious anticipation of rejection) and emotion regulation (down‐regulation of positive social emotion) thought to encourage disordered eating. Public Significance: This study suggests that less accurate interpretations of ambiguous social information encourage anxious anticipation of rejection and downregulation of positive social emotions, both of which are thought to promote eating disorder symptoms. Knowledge provided by this study about the likely relations between interpretive processes, social/emotional functioning, and eating disorder symptoms may help inform treatments for eating disorders, particularly those that attempt to modify patterns of interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the convergence among interpretation bias measures and their associations with depressive symptom severity. Research into interpretation biases employs measures of interpretation bias interchangeably, however, little is known about the relationship between these measures. Participants (N = 82 unselected undergraduate students; 59 female) completed four computer‐based interpretation bias tasks in a cross‐sectional design study. Indirect measures, based on participants' reaction times, were not correlated with each other and had poor split‐half reliability. Direct measures were more strongly correlated with depressive symptoms than indirect measures, but only the Scrambled Sentences Task explained a reliable unique portion of the variance in depressive symptoms. Interpretation bias tasks may not measure the same cognitive process and may differ in the extent to which they are a cognitive marker of depression‐linked interpretation bias. These findings help to improve the measurement of and theory underlying interpretation bias and depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depressive disorders are common in autistic adults, but few studies have examined the extent to which common depression questionnaires are psychometrically appropriate for use in this population. Using item response theory, this study examined the psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI-II) in a sample of 947 autistic adults. BDI-II latent trait scores exhibited strong reliability, construct validity, and moderate ability to discriminate between depressed and nondepressed adults on the autism spectrum (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.796 [0.763, 0.826], sensitivity = 0.820 [0.785, 0.852], specificity = 0.653 [0.601, 0.699]). These results collectively indicate that the BDI-II is a valid measure of depressive symptoms in autistic adults, appropriate for quantifying depression severity in research studies or screening for depressive disorders in clinical settings. A free online score calculator has been created to facilitate the use of BDI-II latent trait scores for clinical and research applications (available at https://asdmeasures.shinyapps.io/bdi_score/). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The propensity to use more repetitive negative thinking and less positive reappraisal is theorized to play an important role in depression. To date, little is known about the presumed enduring nature of these emotion regulation habits. Therefore, this study examined individual longitudinal trajectories and within-person sources of change in the habitual use of repetitive negative thinking and positive reappraisal.Methods: Participants (N=320) completed twenty waves of data collection separated by one-week time intervals. At each wave, participants completed measures of habitual repetitive negative thinking, habitual positive reappraisal, perceived stress, and depression symptoms.Results: Growth curve modeling revealed that the prototypical longitudinal trajectories of habitual repetitive negative thinking and positive reappraisal were relatively stable over time. Yet, substantial variation occurred around the prototypical change trajectories. Perceived stress and depressive symptom severity emerged as within-person factors modulating concurrent levels of emotion regulation habits. Moreover, within-person cross-lagged analysis revealed that changes in repetitive negative thinking both predicted and were predicted by changes in perceived stress. No such within-person reciprocal relations were found for positive reappraisal.Limitations: This study covered only a period of five months, used self-report measures, and was conducted in a community sample. Furthermore, 25% of the participants did not complete all 20 waves of data collection.Conclusions: These findings help to understand the enduring trait-like processes and within-person factors that may contribute to the longitudinal course of habitual repetitive negative thinking and positive reappraisal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attentional and memory biases are viewed as crucial cognitive processes underlying symptoms of depression. However, it is still unclear whether these two biases are uniquely related to depression or whether they show substantial overlap.Methods: We investigated the degree of specificity and overlap of attentional and memory biases for depressotypic stimuli in relation to depression and anxiety by means of meta-analytic commonality analysis. By including four published studies, we considered a pool of 463 healthy and subclinically depressed individuals, different experimental paradigms, and different psychological measures.Results: Memory bias is reliably and strongly related to depression and, specifically, to symptoms of negative mood, worthlessness, feelings of failure, and pessimism. Memory bias for negative information was minimally related to anxiety. Moreover, neither attentional bias nor the overlap between attentional and memory biases were significantly related to depression.Limitations: Limitations include cross-sectional nature of the study.Conclusions: Our study showed that, across different paradigms and psychological measures, memory bias (and not attentional bias) represents a primary mechanism in depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deficient cognitive control over emotional material and cognitive biases are important mechanisms underlying depression, but the interplay between these emotionally distorted cognitive processes in relation to depressive symptoms is not well understood. This study investigated the relations among deficient cognitive control of emotional information (i.e. inhibition, shifting, and updating difficulties), cognitive biases (i.e. negative attention and interpretation biases), and depressive symptoms. Theory-driven indirect effect models were constructed, hypothesising that deficient cognitive control over emotional material predicts depressive symptoms through negative attention and interpretation biases. Bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that deficient inhibitory control over negative material was related to negative attention bias which in turn predicted a congruent bias in interpretation and subsequently depressive symptoms. Both shifting and updating impairments in response to negative material had an indirect effect on depression severity through negative interpretation bias. No evidence was found for direct effects of deficient cognitive control over emotional material on depressive symptoms. These findings may help to formulate an integrated understanding of the cognitive foundations of depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpretation biases have been extensively explored in a range of populations, including patients with anxiety and depressive disorders where they have been argued to influence the onset and maintenance of such conditions. Other populations in which interpretation biases have been explored include patients with chronic pain, anorexia nervosa, and alcohol dependency among others, although this literature is more limited. In this research, stimuli with threatening/emotional and neutral meanings are presented, with participant responses indicative of ambiguity resolution. A large number of paradigms have been designed and implemented in the exploration of interpretation biases, some varying in minor features only. This article provides a review of experimental paradigms available for exploring interpretation biases, with the aim to stimulate and inform the design of future research exploring cognitive biases across a range of populations. A systematic search of the experimental literature was conducted in Medline, PsychINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library databases. Search terms were information, stimuli, and ambiguous intersected with the terms interpretation and bias. Forty-five paradigms were found, categorized into those using ambiguous words, ambiguous images, and ambiguous scenarios. The key features, strengths and limitations of the paradigms identified are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention and interpretation biases are closely involved in depression. However, it is unclear whether they reflect processing tendencies (i.e., driven by schemas) and/or ability-related processes (i.e., dependent on attentional control). This study tested depressive symptom severity, attention bias, and interpretation bias associations under both processing conditions. Fifty-two participants completed two versions of the scrambled sentences test (to measure interpretation bias) while eye movements were recorded (to measure attention bias). Participants were instructed to unscramble sentences by reporting the first sentence coming to mind (tendency version) and in a fixed, positive manner (ability version). Depressive symptom severity was correlated with attention bias under both conditions. Attention bias acted as an intervening variable in the relation between depressive symptoms and interpretation bias during ability processes. These findings suggest that attention biases reflect both processing tendencies and ability dysfunctions, with attentional control as a relevant mechanism in the interpretation of emotional material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory are predictive of future depressive symptoms. It remains unknown, however, how these biased cognitive processes interact to predict depressive symptom levels in the long-term. In the present study, we tested the predictive value of two integrative approaches to model relations between multiple biased cognitive processes, namely the additive (i.e., cognitive processes have a cumulative effect) vs. the weakest link (i.e., the dominant pathogenic process is important) model. We also tested whether these integrative models interacted with perceived stress to predict prospective changes in depressive symptom severity. At Time 1, participants completed measures of depressive symptom severity and emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory. At Time 2, one year later, participants were reassessed to determine depressive symptom levels and perceived stress. Results revealed that the weakest link model had incremental validity over the additive model in predicting prospective changes in depressive symptoms, though both models explained a significant proportion of variance in the change in depressive symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2. None of the integrative models interacted with perceived stress to predict changes in depressive symptomatology. These findings suggest that the best cognitive marker of the evolution in depressive symptoms is the cognitive process that is dominantly biased toward negative material, which operates independent from experienced stress. This highlights the importance of considering idiographic cognitive profiles with multiple cognitive processes for understanding and modifying effects of cognitive biases in depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has investigated functional relations among attention, interpretation, and memory biases in depressed samples. The present study tested the indirect effect of attention bias on memory through interpretation bias as an intervening variable in a mixed sample of non-depressed and subclinically depressed individuals. Subclinically depressed and non-depressed individuals completed a spatial cueing task (to measure attention bias), followed by a scrambled sentences test (to measure interpretation bias), and an incidental free recall task (to measure memory bias). Bias-corrected bootstrapping yielded evidence for the hypothesised indirect effect model, in that an emotional bias in attention is related to a congruent bias in interpretative choices which are in turn reflected in memory. These findings extend previous research and provide further support for the combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression. Theoretical and clinical implications of our findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Drawing from substantial evidence demonstrating cognitive biases in depression at various stages of information processing (i.e., attention, interpretation, memory, cognitive control), we argue for an approach that considers the interplay among these processes. This paper attempts to apply the combined cognitive bias hypothesis (Hirsch, Clark, & Mathews, 2006) to depression research and reviews competing theoretical frameworks that have guided research in this area. We draw on current findings from behavioral studies on the interplay between depression-related processing biases. These data indicate that various cognitive biases are associated. However, it is not clear whether single or multiple biases are most predictive of depressive symptoms. We conclude this article with theoretical and clinical implications of the current state of research in this field and propose a number of ways in which research on the combined cognitive bias hypothesis can be advanced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Interpretation bias and inflexibility have been implicated in a wide range of psychopathologies, including affective disorders and disorders involving persecutory ideation. Existing tasks that measure both interpretation bias and inflexibility (which is essential as bias can make individuals appear inflexible) rely heavily on verbal stimuli, which may be suboptimal for certain applications, including neuroimaging and developmental studies. To overcome these limitations, a picture-based task, the Interpretation Inflexibility Task (IIT) was developed to simultaneously assess interpretation bias and inflexibility. The present manuscript demonstrates the strong convergent validity of the IIT and an existing, verbal measure of interpretation bias and inflexibility (the Emotional BADE task), in a general population sample (N = 247). Across both tasks, inflexible negative interpretations (above and beyond interpretation bias) were associated with symptoms of depression, social anxiety, and paranoia. The consistency of this association across stimulus modalities suggests the existence of higher-level cognitive deficits that increase interpretation inflexibility and thereby increase risk for both affective and psychotic symptoms. The IIT provides an innovative and reliable paradigm to investigate this transdiagnostic factor, particularly given its superior suitability for neuroimaging studies. • A novel task uses pictures to assess interpretation bias and inflexibility. • The task studies inflexibility in revising beliefs about ambiguous social situations. • Inflexibility relates to depression, social anxiety, and delusion-like ideations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is thought to involve aberrant social learning, including impaired revision of social interpretations with new evidence (social interpretation inflexibility). However, this topic has received little empirical attention outside of specific literatures, such as moral inference or behavioral economics. Further, the contribution of comorbid depression to BPD-related interpretation inflexibility has not yet been assessed. In two independent samples (Study 1: N = 213; Study 2: N = 210, oversampled for BPD features), we assessed the associations between BPD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and task-based measures of social interpretation flexibility. We found that BPD symptoms, particularly volatility of identity and relationships, were associated with less revision of social interpretations with both positive and negative evidence. Meanwhile, depressive symptoms were associated with a pattern of less revision of social interpretations with positive versus negative information. The use of cross-sectional, crowdsourced samples limits causal interpretations. Translation to clinical populations should be assessed in future studies. Results suggest that inflexible social interpretations across valences may be a feature of BPD-related pathology, and could be connected to symptoms involving volatility in social contexts. Future studies should investigate whether treatments geared toward increasing the flexibility of social interpretations are effective in treating BPD symptoms, especially those involving interpersonal difficulties. • Two independent online samples collected with range of BPD and MDD symptoms. • The flexibility of participants' social interpretations was assessed. • BPD symptoms associated with less negative and positive interpretation flexibility. • MDD symptoms associated with greater negative versus positive flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]