State and Trait Rumination Effects on Overt Attention to Reminders of Errors in a Challenging General Knowledge Retrieval Task

Abstract

Rumination is a recurrent and repetitive manner of thinking that can be triggered by blockage of personally relevant goals, creating a temporary state of abstract and evaluative self-focus. Particularly when focused on passive “brooding” over one’s problems and feelings, however, rumination can increase negative affect, interfere with problem-solving, and, through a negative feedback cycle, become a chronic trait-like style of responding to personal challenges, particularly in women. Given the pervasiveness of rumination and its potential impact on cognitive processes and emotional states, the present study asks how it impacts attention to feedback that either reminds individuals of goal-state discrepancies (reminders of errors) or could help to remediate them (corrective information). Using eye-tracking, we examined both state and trait rumination effects on overt measures of attention [first fixation duration (FFD) and total fixation duration (TFD)] during simultaneous presentation of these two types of feedback following failed attempts to answer challenging verbal general knowledge questions (average accuracy ∼30%). After a pre-induction baseline, we induced either a state of rumination using a series of writing exercises centered on the description of an unresolved academic concern or a state of distraction by centering writing on the description of a neutral school day. Within our women-only sample, the Rumination condition, which writing analysis showed was dominated by moody brooding, resulted in some evidence for increased initial dwell time (FFD) on reminders of incorrect answers, while the Distraction condition, which did not elicit any rumination during writing, resulted in increased FFD on the correct answer. Trait brooding augmented the expression of the more negative, moody brooding content in the writing samples of both Induction conditions, but only influenced TFD measures of gaze duration and only during the pre-induction baseline, suggesting that once the inductions activated rumination or distraction states, these suppressed the trait effects in this sample. These results provide some support for attentional-bias models of rumination (attentional scope model, impaired disengagement hypothesis) and have implications for how even temporary states of rumination or distraction might impact processing of academic feedback under conditions of challenge and failure.

Research on the Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste Source Classification Behavior Based on Institutional Engineering – Comment on “Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Regulations”

“…European and American countries implemented waste classification management policies early, and there are many research results on the source classification behavior of municipal solid waste. Judging from the existing research results, there are mainly six theories in behavioral research involving garbage classification, including value theory [9], environmental cognition theory [10], comfort preference theory [11], 12], utility perception theory [13], group norm theory [14,15], and social capital theory [16]. The value theory believes that, compared to people with individualistic and selfcentered values, people who uphold social altruistic values and surpass self-values are more willing to give up their personal interests and engage in behaviors that are beneficial to the environment and others [17][18][19][20][21].…”

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Brief State Rumination Inventory

“…Early theoretical models of rumination such as Nolen-Hoeksema's Response Styles Theory ( 10 ) considered rumination as a relatively stable and chronic trait. Individuals with such a trait-like rumination style were viewed as tending to produce a sustained but unproductive focus of attention on negative outcomes and their associated feelings ( 11 ). Trait rumination can usually be assessed by self-rated scales, such as the ruminative response scale (RRS) ( 12 ) and the repetitive thinking questionnaire (RTQ) ( 13 ).…”

Executive functions predict the trajectories of rumination in middle-aged and older adults: A latent growth curve analysis.

“…On the other hand, state rumination refers to a temporary episode of rumination in response to a stressor, negative mood state, or salient discrepancies between desired goals and one’s current state (Watkins, 2008; Watkins & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2014). A state of ruminative self-focus can be temporarily elicited by blocked or hindered attainment of personally relevant goals, and eventually develop into a chronic tendency to ruminate in response to personal challenges (Watkins & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2014; Whiteman & Mangels, 2020). Most studies that examine the relation between EF and rumination have focused on trait rumination, and find the EF deficits generally associated with trait rumination in both clinically depressed and anxious individuals (Harrington & Blankenship, 2002; Olatunji et al, 2013; Ruscio et al, 2015) and nonclinical samples (Pe et al, 2013; Whitmer & Gotlib, 2013).…”