Enhanced accuracy of mental state decoding in dysphoric college students
Abstract
A significant clinical feature of depression involves difficulties in social functioning. At the foundation of these difficulties may lie alterations in “theory of mind” reasoning—the ability to decode others' mental states. Participants included 124 undergraduates who participated in a theory of mind task that involved attributing emotion states (e.g., happy, embarrassed) to photographs of eyes. Across two studies, dysphoria was significantly positively associated with greater accuracy on this task, suggesting an increased sensitivity to the subtle social cues required to make theory of mind judgements. This association held regardless of the emotional valence of the judgement. Furthermore, this finding was robust after controlling for reaction time and level of anxiety. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for developing a model of social cognition in depression.
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Harkness et al. (2005) identified three affect-based subscales: Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Neutral Affect.
“Harkness et al. (2005) also identified three affect-based subscales: (1) Positive Affect; (2) Negative Affect; and (3) Neutral Affect.”
From A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings (2015) · cites this paper as Harkness et al. (2005)
With the exception of item 17, the most frequently chosen response option was the correct response option.
“With the exception of item 17, the most frequently chosen response option was the correct response option (see Table A1 in Supplementary Materials), which is supported by prior studies of normal populations (e.g., Baron-Cohen et al., 2001; Harkness et al., 2005).”
From A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings (2015) · cites this paper as Harkness et al., 2005
The affect classifications by Konrath et al. (2014) and by Harkness et al. (2005) were a poor organization of the items.
“Also, as presented above, we found that the affect classifications by Konrath et al. (2014) and by Harkness et al. (2005) were a poor organization of the items, suggesting that the affect of the target word does not predict performance in any meaningful way.”
From A psychometric analysis of the reading the mind in the eyes test: toward a brief form for research and applied settings (2015) · cites this paper as Harkness et al., 2005
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- Authors
- Harkness, K., Sabbagh, M., Jacobson, J., Chowdrey, N., & Chen, T.
- Affiliations
- Queen's University (CA)
- Venue
- Cognition & Emotion
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-11
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 999-1025
- ISSN
- 0269-9931 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0600
- OpenAlex
- W2034119223
- Cited by
- 244
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 4.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cognition & Emotion (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Deception detection and forensic psychology
- Keywords
- theory of mind, mental state decoding, dysphoria, depression, social cognition, emotion attribution, facial expressions, university students, anxiety, social functioning
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