The combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression (original) (raw)
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The Combined Cognitive Bias Hypothesis in Depression: A State-of-the-art
Clinical Psychology Review, 2012
Drawing from substantial evidence demonstrating cognitive biases in depression at various stages of information processing (ie, attention, interpretation, memory, cognitive control), we argue for an approach that considers the interplay among these processes. This paper attempts to apply the combined cognitive bias hypothesis (Hirsch, Clark, & Mathews, 2006) to depression research and reviews competing theoretical frameworks that have guided research in this area. We draw on current findings from behavioral studies on the interplay ...
Mapping Dynamic Interactions Among Cognitive Biases in Depression
Emotion Review, 2020
Depression is theorized to be caused in part by biased cognitive processing of emotional information. Yet, prior research has adopted a reductionist approach that does not characterize how biases in cognitive processes such as attention and memory work together to confer risk for this complex multifactorial disorder. Grounded in affective and cognitive science, we highlight four mechanisms to understand how attention biases, working memory difficulties, and long-term memory biases interact and contribute to depression. We review evidence for each mechanism and highlight time-and context-dependent dynamics. We outline methodological considerations and recommendations for research in this area. We conclude with directions to advance the understanding of depression risk, cognitive training interventions, and transdiagnostic properties of cognitive biases and their interactions.
Emotion, 2014
Emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory are viewed as important cognitive processes underlying symptoms of depression. To date, there is a limited understanding of the interplay among these processing biases. This study tested the dependence of memory on depression-related biases in attention and interpretation. Subclinically depressed and nondepressed participants completed a computerized version of the scrambled sentences test (measuring interpretation bias) while their eye movements were recorded (measuring attention bias). This task was followed by an incidental free recall test of previously constructed interpretations (measuring memory bias). Path analysis revealed a good fit for the model in which selective orienting of attention was associated with interpretation bias, which in turn was associated with a congruent bias in memory. Also, a good fit was observed for a path model in which biases in the maintenance of attention and interpretation were associated with memory bias. Both path models attained a superior fit compared to path models without the theorized functional relations among processing biases. These findings enhance understanding of how mechanisms of attention and interpretation regulate what is remembered. As such, they offer support for the combined cognitive biases hypothesis or the notion that emotionally biased cognitive processes are not isolated mechanisms but instead influence each other. Implications for theoretical models and emotion regulation across the spectrum of depressive symptoms are discussed.
Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 2015
Interpreting ambiguous stimuli in a negative manner is a core bias associated with depression. Investigators have used cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) to demonstrate that it is possible to experimentally induce and modify these biases. This study extends previous research by examining whether CBM-I affects not only interpretation, but also memory and physiological stress response in individuals diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). We found that CBM-I was effective in inducing an interpretive bias. Participants also exhibited memory biases that corresponded to their training condition and demonstrated differential physiological responding in a stress task. These results suggest that interpretation biases in depression can be modified, and that this training can lead to corresponding changes in memory and to decreases in stress reactivity. Findings from this study highlight the importance of examining the relations among different cognitive biases in ...
Interpretative Bias: Indicators of Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression
German Journal of Psychiatry, 2008
Objectives: The study aimed at testing the existence of interpretative bias in remitted depressives as compared to unipolar depressives and never-depressed individuals. Method: Cognitive Bias Questionnaire was administered on 10 individuals each with unipolar depression, remitted depression, and never-depressed participants. Participants were presented with vague and ambiguous vignettes of potentially problematic situation that individuals often encounter their daily lives. Each vignette is followed by four questions with four response options reflecting a depressed-distorted, depressed-nondistorted, nondepressed-distorted, or nondepressed-nondistorted option. Participants choose the response option that best represents how they would respond to the situation if it actually happened to them. Results: Unipolar depressives interpret their condition as high on depressive mood symptoms as well as distorted thoughts whereas remitted depressives interpret their condition as high on distorted thoughts alone. Conclusions: It may suggest that despite of reduction in level of symptomatic severity of depression, cognitive errors are still maintained during remission, can increase one's vulnerability for relapse. It implies that management of depression should focus on reducing cognitive vulnerability to depression, rather than only targeting a reduction in the symptoms (German J Psychiatry 2008; 11: 98-102).
Biased information processing as a vulnerability factor for depression
Behavior Therapy, 1998
Individuals who become clinically depressed once are more likely than are their never-depressed counterparts to experience a future episode of depression. This finding suggests that there is a stable vulnerability factor, or set of factors, that predisposes some individuals to become depressed repeatedly over the course of their lives. Cognitive theories of depression (e.g., contend that negatively biased information processing may constitute such a vulnerability factor for the onset and/or maintenance of depression. In this paper, we review research using informationprocessing paradigms that examines depression-associated biases in attention to, and memory for, negative information. We conclude that there is strong evidence that depression is associated with concurrent information-processing biases. Moreover, based on the results of recent priming studies, we argue further that some aspects of cognitive functioning, particularly those involving memory processes, may indeed represent a vulnerability factor for depression. We conclude this paper with a discussion of implications of this line of research for the prevention and treatment of depression.
Coherence and Specificity of Information-Processing Biases in Depression and Social Phobia
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2004
Research has not resolved whether depression is associated with a distinct information-processing bias, whether the content of the information-processing bias in depression is specific to themes of loss and sadness, or whether biases are consistent across the tasks most commonly used to assess attention and memory processing. In the present study, participants diagnosed with major depression, social phobia, or no Axis I disorder, completed several information-processing tasks assessing attention and memory for sad, socially threatening, physically threatening, and positive stimuli. As predicted, depressed participants exhibited specific biases for stimuli connoting sadness; social phobic participants did not evidence such specificity for threat stimuli. It is important to note that the different measures of bias in memory and attention were not systematically intercorrelated. Implications for the study of cognitive bias in depression, and for cognitive theory more broadly, are discussed.
The Causal Role of Attentional Bias in a Cognitive Component of Depression
Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 2015
Cognitive theories have, for years, postulated the causal role of attentional biases in depression and low self-esteem. However, this assumption has been based predominantly on correlational findings. With the advent of attentional bias modification techniques , it became possible to modify attentional bias experimentally. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether negative attentional biases are trainable and causally linked to changes in important characteristics of depression, namely self-esteem. Participants completed negative attentional training and a stress induction task. Consistent with the diathesis-stress model, a combination of negative attentional biases and stress resulted in changes in self-esteem, which was used as an indicator of depression. The effects on self-esteem were specific to the type of stimuli used. These findings have important implications for our understanding of self-esteem, cognitive models of depression, and for the future of cognitive bias modification research in self-esteem and depression.