Affective bias in internal attention shifting among depressed youth
Abstract
The present study compared the performance of depressed youths and healthy controls on a modified mental counting task. The mental counting task was designed to capture processes associated with shifting the internal focus of attention by requiring participants to count random runs of words appearing on a computer screen. The words belonged to two different categories, and participants were required to maintain a count of the number of words in each category. Participants' reaction time to successfully update their counts and call for subsequent stimuli was measured. In particular, two versions of the modified counting task were developed: one incorporating neutral words and the other affective words. Overall, our findings in reaction time analysis suggest that depressed patients exhibited greater difficulty switching their internal focus of attention in the affective task when compared to healthy controls, even when controlling for their rate of accuracy. However, there was no significant difference between the groups during the neutral task. Results support the hypothesis that depression is related to impaired internal attention shifting when processing affective material.
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Individuals with clinical depression have shown greater switch costs than controls during tasks involving affective words.
“For example, individuals with clinical depression have exhibited greater switch costs (shift costs) than controls during tasks involving affective words (Lo and Allen 2011).”
From Executive Function Deficits in Daily Life Prospectively Predict Increases in Depressive Symptoms (2014) · cites this paper as Lo and Allen 2011
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Inflexibility as a Vulnerability to Depression: A Systematic Qualitative Review
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Executive Function Deficits in Daily Life Prospectively Predict Increases in Depressive Symptoms
Letkiewicz, A. M., Miller, G. A., Crocker, L. D., Warren, S. L., Infantolino, Z. P., Mimnaugh, K. J., & Heller, W. (2014) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10608-014-9629-5 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lo, B. C. Y., & Allen, N. B.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Allen, Nicholas B.
- ORCID
- Allen, Nicholas B.
- Venue
- Psychiatry Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-05
- Volume
- 187
- Issue
- 1-2
- Pages
- 125-129
- ISSN
- 0165-1781 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2003682224
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 1.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychiatry Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - Lingnan (Lingnan University) (submittedVersion)
- The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
- Keywords
- depression, affective bias, attentional control, emotional words, reaction time, adolescents, emotional processing
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Depression, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Mathematics, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Photic Stimulation, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Reaction Time, Vocabulary, Bias, Self Report
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