Word Memory in Non-Psychotic Depression

Abstract

Two diverging explanations can be given for the fact that depressed persons often show deficits on verbal learning tasks: (a) researchers have suggested that memory deficits are the result of interference in the transfer from short- to long-term memory; (b) other researchers have suggested that depressives may not have cognitive deficits but may instead simply show deficits in performance. The present study assessed differences in recognition memory, free recall, organization in multitrial free recall, and final free recall among short-term and long-term non-psychotic depressives (ns = 15) to determine whether such depressed adults show deficits on verbal learning tasks. No verbal learning deficits wee demonstrated for 30 depressives relative to 30 nondepressives. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of interference and the possibility that poor verbal learning in depression is a problem of performance and not learning.

Effects of mood and severity on memory processes in depression and mania.

“…No difference was observed between the two states for short-term memory. Davis and Unruh (1980) found no memory deficits in nonpsychotic depressed outpatients compared with nondepressed psychiatric control outpatients on tasks that assessed recognition memory, free recall, and subjective organization. Rush, Weissenburger, Vinson, and Giles (1983) compared endogenous and nonendogenous depressives to adult norms on Vinson's (1973) neuropsychological exam.…”

“…Subject selection procedures may have also been responsible for the results obtained by Davis and Unruh (1980). Unlike those investigations demonstrating a short-term memory deficit, Davis and Unruh (1980) examined outpatients rather than inpatients. The apparent contradictory findings of those studies may in fact be due to differences in severity of depressive illness, with inpatients being characterized by more severe forms of this disorder.…”

“…This line of research suggests that the depressive selfschema may be characterized by a lack of activation of normally operating processes, as well as a sensitivity to negative information about the self. Davis's(1979aDavis's( , 1979bDavis &Unruh, 1980 investigations suggested that the self-schema of an individual experiencing a depressive episode undergoes a period of reorganization. Derry and Kuiper (1981) further demonstrated that the depressive self-schema is characterized by negative bias, select-ing for processing those self-descriptive words with a depressive denotation.…”

Toward an Understanding of Cognitive Functioning in Geriatric Depression

“…However, empirical evidence presented in the literature is far from supportive of this prediction. Salzman and Gutfreund (1986) provided a concise summary of effects of Decreased acquisition and recall of new information (Breslow et al, 1981;Cohenet al, 1982;Davis & Unruh, 1980;Friedman, 1964;Henry et al, 1973;Jarvik et al, 1972); increased emrsof omission (Henry et al, 1973;Jarviket al, 1972;McAllister, 1981;Whitehead, 1973); transposition errors, mispairing, and reversal of stimulus-response words (Henry et al, 1973;Whitehead, 1973); decreased ability to impose organization on unorganized information (Breslow et al, 1981;Weingartner et al, 1981Weingartner et al, , 1982; less effective coding and memory strategies (level of processing) (Breslow et al, 1981;Weingartner et al, 1981Weingartner et al, , 1982; fluctuating deficits in episodic memory; increased access to sad memories (Bower, 1981;Fogarty & Hemsley, 1983;Isenet al, 1978;Natale & Hantas, 1982;Teasdale & Fogarty, 1979) and, with increasing depression, decreased access to pleasant memories (Breslow et al, 1981); altered guessing strategies; taking fewer risks in a task (Miller & Lewis, 1977), reluctance to give oneself the benefit of the doubt (Alloy & Abramson, 1979), or reluctance to use negative feedback as a basis for change in strategy (Silberman et al, 1983); and decreased attention and reaction time (Breslow et al, 1981;Glass et al, 1981). The large number of studies that showed the detrimental effects of depression on cognition led Weingartner (1986) to conclude that every conceivable stage or type of information-processing system has been implicated in determining aspects of cognitive dysfunction in depres...…”

Verbal and non-verbal recall by depressed and euthymic affective patients

“…The existence of memory deficits in depression is well substantiated (e.g. Cronholm & Ottosson, 1961;Sternberg & Jarvik, 1976;Cohen et al 1982;Breslow et al 1980;Frith et al 1983;Davis & Unruh, 1980;Koh & Wolpert, 1983;Calev & Erwin, 1985;Lang & Frith, 1981). However, these deficits are reported to be transient, disappearing in euthymic patients (e.g.…”