The indirect effect of attention bias on memory via interpretation bias: Evidence for the combined cognitive bias hypothesis in subclinical depression

Abstract

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 nondepressed 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 hypothesized 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 add further support for the combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression. Theoretical and clinical implications of our findings are discussed.Keywords: depression, cognitive processing, combined cognitive bias hypothesis, attention, interpretation, memory. INDIRECT EFFECT OF ATTENTION ON MEMORY 3 Indirect effects of Attention Bias on Memory Bias via Interpretation Bias:Evidence for the Combined Cognitive Bias Hypothesis in Subclinical Depression.The scientific understanding of underlying mechanisms in depression has markedly increased in the past decades. Various cognitive variables at the content (e.g., dysfunctional attitudes) as well as at the process (e.g., memory) level that play a detrimental role in the onset and maintenance of depressive symptoms have been identified. At the process level, considerable empirical research has shown that both subclinically and clinically depressed individuals selectively attend to negative information, tend to interpret ambiguous information in a negative manner, and recall disproportionately more negative memories (for reviews, see Gotlib & Joormann, 2010). Although there is extensive evidence supporting attention, interpretation, and memory biases in depression, the interplay between these cognitive mechanisms is not well understood.In recent years, there is a growing consensus that cognitive biases should be studied in an integrative manner to augment understanding of each particular process as well as disordered cognitive functioning (see Everaert, Koster, & Derakshan, 2012;Hertel & Brozovich, 2010;Hirsch, Clark, & Mathews, 2006). It has been advocated that biased cognitive processes influence each other in that a bias at one stage (e.g., attention) affects the processing of this information at the other stages (e.g., interpretation). This notion has been labeled as the combined cognitive bias hypothesis (Hirsch et al., 2006). Indeed, there is increasing empirical study on such functional relations or the dependence between cognitive biases in healthy, at-risk, and depressed samples. Relations Between Cognitive BiasesSome studies have examined memory in relation to emotional biases in attention. A study in a subclinically dep...

Attention bias modification via single-session dot-probe training: Failures to replicate

“…Individual bias acquisition scores were not related to performance on an interpretation test presenting trained (experiment 2a) or non-trained (experiment 2b) stimuli. This is surprising in light of prior research showing that interpretation mediates the relation between attention and memory bias (Everaert et al, 2014;Everaert et al, 2013). Moreover, the pre-training attention bias scores did not predict affective task-switching costs nor the change in interpretation bias.…”

“…In experiment 2a and 2b, we examined transfer of training toward positive and negative material to trained and non-trained stimuli in an interpretation task requiring individuals to evaluate positive and negative selfrelevant meanings. Interpretation bias, a risk factor to various emotional disorders (Mathews & MacLeod, 2005), depends on emotional biases in attention and regulates emotional memory (Everaert, Duyck, & Koster, 2014;Everaert, Tierens, Uzieblo, & Koster, 2013). In keeping with recent ABM research, we investigated effects of training on attention bias and transfer tasks at the condition as well as at the individual differences level.…”

“…At each assessment, participants solved as many sentences as possible within 3.5 minutes. As in prior research (e.g., Everaert et al, 2013;Rude, Wenzlaff, Gibbs, Vane, & Whitney, 2002), a cognitive load procedure was applied to reduce deliberate report strategies (e.g., social desirability). Participants memorized a 6 digit number before the SST which they had to recall after the test.…”

Attention, interpretation, and memory biases in subclinical depression: A proof-of-principle test of the combined cognitive biases hypothesis.

“…To follow up on the findings reported in this article, we recently conducted a study to provide further empirical support for the indirect effect of attention on memory bias via interpretation processes (Everaert, Tierens, Uzieblo, & Koster, 2013). …”

Rumination: Cognitive consequences of training to inhibit the negative

“…In examining the opposite causal direction, White, Suway, Bar-Haim, and Fox (2011) ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Running Head: TRAINING INHIBITION OF NEGATIVE INFORMATION 6 showed that participants who were trained to attend to threat displayed an increase in anxiety-related negative interpretations of ambiguous events. Everaert, Tierens, Uzieblo, and Koster, (2013) have found, using a non-depressed and sub-clinically depressed sample, that a negative bias in attention indirectly affects memory via its effect on negative interpretation bias. To the best of our knowledge, the transfer of rumination-related training effects from one bias to another has not been examined.…”