On the importance of mood intensity and encoding demands in memory: Commentary on Hasher, Rose, Zacks, Sanft, and Doren.

Comments on the failure of L. Hasher et al (see record 1986-03061-001) to find either an overall reduction in story recall or selectivity effects in recall due to mildly depressed mood state. It is suggested that their negative findings may be the result of a weak individual difference mood manipulation and that the story recall task may make insufficient encoding demands to reveal the effects of mood on recall. Although the negative findings of Hasher et al appear valid, the conditions of their experiments are those which appear least likely to produce mood effects on recall. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences between depressed and nondepressed individuals in the recognition of and response to facial emotional cues.

Investigated the recognition of, and responses to, facial expressions of emotion. Ss were all women and consisted of the following groups: (1) 16 depressed college students, (2) 16 nondepressed college students, (3) 16 depressed psychiatric patients, and (4) 11 nondepressed psychiatric patients. Results suggest that both depressed groups, relative to the nondepressed college group, made more errors in recognizing the facial expressions and reported more freezing or tensing, higher fear and depression reactions, and less comfort with their own emotional reactions to these expressions and a stronger desire to change these reactions. Few differences were found between the depressed psychiatric patients and the psychiatric control Ss. It is concluded that inappropriate reactions to others' emotions may maintain or increase depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal and external components of emotionality in restrained and unrestrained eaters.

Compared the affective responsiveness of dieters and nondieters. 47 male college students rated the emotional impact of projected slides in a situation similar to that used by P. Pliner et al (see record 1974-27296-001) with obese and normal Ss. The present findings show that dieters, like the obese, were more extreme emotional responders. When Ss were given an internal source of arousal (i.e., caffeine), nondieters became more emotional and dieters became less emotional. These results are discussed in terms of S. Schachter's (1971) "externality" model of obesity and S. Schachter and J. E. Singer's "external–internal" theory of emotion. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An integration–theoretical analysis of cultural and developmental differences in attribution of performance.

R. Singh et al (see record 1980-32377-001) proposed that American and Indian college students differ in their beliefs on how motivation and ability determine performance. Americans follow a multiplying rule, which implies that effort will be more effective with persons of high than of low ability. In contrast, Indians follow an equal-weight averaging, which implies that effort will be equally effective with persons of low and high ability. The present study tested this cultural-difference hypothesis using 120 Ss from 5 age groups: children 6–7, 8–9, 10–11, and 12–23 yrs old and college students 17–29 yrs old. As predicted, the Ss averaged information about past performance, motivation, and ability when predicting student performance. There was no support for the American finding that Performance?=?Motivation?×?Ability. Developmental differences appeared at the level of integrational capacity. These results illustrate the potential power of information integration theory for cross-cultural and cross-age comparisons in social perception and cognition. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does method of item presentation affect keyword method effectiveness?

J. W. Hall et al (see record 1981-25028-001) concluded that with sophisticated students, the usefulness of the keyword method of vocabulary learning is limited to occasions when presentation of the items is paced by an experimenter (E). The present 2 experiments each varied whether 80 college students learned a vocabulary list using the keyword method or through their own strategies and whether items were E- or S-paced during presentation. In both experiments, keyword Ss outperformed controls; and there was no Treatment?×?Pacing interaction. It is concluded that the benefits of the keyword method are not limited to paced study situations. Factors that may have contributed to the Treatment?×?Pacing interaction obtained by Hall et al are suggested. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivational and associative aspects of mild depression in skill and chance tasks.

In Exp I, the levels of aspiration and expectancies for success of 281 mildly depressed and nondepressed college students on a skill and chance task were studied. The 2 groups did not differ in expectations for success, but depressed Ss displayed elevated levels of aspiration, particularly for the skill task. Exp II, with 120 college students, tested the prediction, based on an attainment discrepancy model, that increases in expectancy for success would be a function of the interaction of performance level and the skill–chance nature of a task for mildly depressed Ss but not for nondepressed Ss. Comparisons of increases in expectancy for success following average and superior performance support this prediction. The prediction that locus of control (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory) would not be significantly correlated was also confirmed. Results indicate that the level of aspiration of mildly depressed persons may be particularly elevated in skill tasks, resulting in the perception of average performance in such tasks as unsuccessful. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Causal explanations as a risk factor for depression: Theory and evidence.

The attributional reformulation of the learned helplessness model as outlined by L. Y. Abramson et al (see record 1979-00305-001) claims that an explanatory style in which bad events are explained by internal, stable, and global causes is associated with depressive symptoms. This style is claimed to be a risk factor for subsequent depression when bad events are encountered. A variety of new investigations of the helplessness reformulation are described that have employed 5 research strategies: cross-sectional correlational studies, longitudinal studies, experiments of nature, laboratory experiments, and case studies. Ss in these investigations included children, college students, poor women, depressed patients, and prisoners. Most of these studies involved the use of the Attributional Style Questionnaire and measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory and Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. These studies converge in their support for the learned helplessness reformulation. (120 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of activity preference in depressed and nondepressed college students.

It has been hypothesized that depressive behavior is maintained by the activities and interpersonal interactions of depressed individuals and their environment. The present study sought to determine whether depressed and nondepressed college students could be differentiated on the basis of their reported activities over a 6-day period. Ss were 20 female undergraduates with highest scores on the Depression Adjective Checklists, and 20 controls. Results of a multivariate stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that a perfect discrimination could be formed between depressed and control Ss. It is concluded that depression in a college population is correlated with small changes in many activities rather than with the large reductions in overt behavior reported for clinically depressed individuals. Results suggest the possibility of an operant component in maintaining depressive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the perception of reinforcement.

Tested the prediction of the learned helplessness model of depression that depressed Ss tend to perceive reinforcement as more response-independent than do nondepressed Ss in skill tasks, but not in chance tasks. Changes in expectancies for success following reinforcement in chance and skill tasks were examined in 32 college students. The Rotter Internal-External Control Scale and Beck Depression Inventory were used to classify Ss into 4 groups: depressed high external, depressed low external, nondepressed high external, and nondepressed low external. The predictions were confirmed: nondepressed Ss showed greater expectancy changes than depressed Ss in skill, while the changes of depressed and nondepressed Ss were similar in chance. Externality had no significant effect on expectancy changes in chance or skill. Results indicate that depression entails a specific cognitive distortion of the consequences of skilled action. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of actor depression on observer attributions: Existence and impact of negative attributions toward the depressed.

This experiment examined whether others explain the successes and failures of depressed versus nondepressed people differently and how these attributions are related to affective and behavioral reactions to a request for psychological help. Ss reported attributions about the success and failure experiences of hypothetical depressed and nondepressed people. Ss also responded to a hypothetical request for psychological help by indicating their attributions, affective reactions, willingness to help, and desire for future social contact. As hypothesized, Ss displayed more negative attributions toward depressed people. Replicating prior research (W. P. Sacco et al; see record 1986-12000-001), Ss responded to the depressive's request for help with mixed emotional and behavioral reactions. Path analyses revealed that attributions influenced affective reactions, which influenced willingness to help; but a more complex pattern emerged from the analysis of desire for future social contact. Results are discussed in terms of the interpersonal impact and possible causes of negative attributions about the experiences of depressed people. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scanning and form-contingent color aftereffects.

G. K. Humphrey et al (see record 1994-28172-001) and J. Broerse and P. Grimbeek (see record 1994-28160-001) suggested that the form-contingent color aftereffect reported by S. Siegel et al (see record 1992-22207-001) would not be obtained if Ss were instructed to scan the induction and assessment forms. The authors present data from 10 adult Ss who were instructed to scan the forms. These scanning Ss displayed aftereffects that were no different from those described earlier by Siegel et al. Scanning Ss do display spatiotopic contingent color aftereffects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The farmer and the cowman should be friends: An attempt at reconciliation with Batson, Coke, and Pych.

R. L. Archer et al (see record 1982-05783-001) suggested that high dispositional empathy and socially evaluative circumstances be added to the 2-stage model of empathically-mediated helping of J. S. Coke et al (see record 1980-00984-001). C. D. Batson et al (1983) responded with 2 lines of argument against this. To the 1st of their arguments, that the original model will apply to Ss low as well as high in dispositional empathy, the present author replies that both hypotheses (theirs and his) await an adequate test. To the 2nd, that the success of the model in experimental contexts lacking in social evaluation is well-demonstrated, the author replies that those experimental paradigms may also have socially evaluative aspects. A reconciliation based on shared beliefs that the 2-stage model has potential and deserves more investigation is also explored. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, self-focused attention, and the negative memory bias.

On the basis of self-regulatory perseveration theory, we hypothesized that the negative memory bias commonly found among depressed people is mediated by excess levels of self-focused attention and thus can be reduced by preventing depressed people from focusing on themselves. In Experiment 1, nondepressed and subclinically depressed college students were induced to either focus on themselves or externally and then to recall 10 events that had happened to themselves during the previous 2 weeks. Consistent with our hypotheses, events recalled by depressed Ss were more negative than events recalled by nondepressed Ss under conditions of self-focus but not under conditions of external focus. We conducted Experiment 2 to determine whether this effect was specific to self-referent events or generalizable to events that happened to other people. Experiment 2's findings replicated the previous findings for self-referent events but showed a different pattern for recall of events that happened to others, suggesting that self-focus reduces the negative memory bias among depressed individuals by deactivating their self-schemas. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A good match is hard to find: Comment on Mayer, Tajika, and Stanley (1991).

R. E. Mayer et al (see record 1991-19796-001) reported that US students scored higher on problem-solving tasks than their Japanese peers when matched on computation skills. Contrary to Mayer et al, the authors believe that these results are artifacts that reveal little about the nature of Japanese and US education. Drawing on work by P. E. Meehl (1970), the Mayer et al study is used to illustrate pitfalls of matching cases in an attempt to create equivalent groups of Ss. Besides well-known regression effects, matching (whether by selecting Ss or by statistical correction) is subject to 3 major criticisms: (1) It produces systematically unmatched samples with respect to other meaningful variables, (2) it results in unrepresentative samples from which it is hard to draw meaningful generalizations, and (3) causal interpretation becomes nearly impossible. These pitfalls must be considered when interpreting the results of ex post facto matched designs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic and situational determinants of depressed and nondepressed students' interpretation of feedback.

We examined whether depressed persons' social skill deficits contribute to their negative cognitions and whether this contribution is independent of their negative schemata. Depressed (n?=?60) and nondepressed (n?=?60) Ss engaged in group discussions. We assessed Ss' social competence schemata with a questionnaire and Ss' actual level of social competence in the discussion through objective ratings made by codiscussants and outside observers. We found that independently of their negative schemata, depressed Ss' social skill deficits explained a significant portion of the variance in their more negative interpretation of feedback (relative to nondepressed Ss'). This suggests that real deficits in depressed persons' performance compound the effects of their negative schemata and further contribute to their negative cognitions. We also further explored findings by B. M. Dykman et al (see record 1989-18948-001) and P.M. Lewinsohn et al (see record 1980-12088-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Universal versus personal helplessness in depression: Belief in uncontrollability or incompetence?

The learned helplessness model of depression predicts that depressed individuals believe outcomes are more response independent than do nondepressed individuals in a skill situation. The present study assessed whether depressives' cognitive distortions are specific to their belief about their own skilled action or are a result of a general belief in uncontrollability in the world. Changes in expectancies following success and failure in skill and chance tasks were examined in 32 depressed and 32 nondepressed college students who either performed themselves or observed a confederate perform a pair of tasks. In the skill task, depressed Ss showed significantly smaller changes in expectancy than nondepressed Ss when estimating the probability of their own success. In contrast, depressed and nondepressed Ss did not differ when estimating the probability of another person's success on the identical skill task. It is inferred that depressed individuals view themselves as helpless in a skilled situation but do not view the situation itself as uncontrollable. Results are discussed in terms of the reformulated learned helplessness model. (52 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-reported distress: Analog or ersatz depression?

The conclusion of K. Vredenburg et al (see record 1993-21779-001) that self-reported distress in college students is an appropriate analog for diagnosable depression is examined in light of a broader literature. Self-reported distress is conceptually and empirically distinct from depression and depressive symptoms. Distress has stronger correlates with common psychological and social factors. Distress in college students tends to be mild and transient, and most distressed college students are not depressed. Some other features of college life also make generalizations to clinical and community samples of adults problematic. Overall, ubiquitous misunderstandings in the literature have limited recognition of the pitfalls of studying distress as an analog for diagnosable depression. It is undesirable for reasons of science, social responsibility, and the credibility of psychological models of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingency judgments by depressed college students: Sadder but not always wiser.

Three experiments with 296 undergraduates examined depressed and nondepressed (Beck Depression Inventory) Ss' perceptions of control over outcomes in a task similar to the one introduced by L. B. Alloy and L. Y. Abramson (see record 1981-02686-001). In Exp I, when Ss completed a contingency learning task with no one else present, nondepressed Ss perceived themselves to have more control over frequently occurring response-independent outcomes than did depressed Ss, which replicated Alloy and Abramson's finding. When Ss completed the task in the presence of an observer, depressed students perceived themselves to have more control than did nondepressed Ss. In Exp II, the observer effects found in Exp I were replicated; the present authors also showed that, when response-independent outcomes occurred relatively infrequently, depressed and nondepressed Ss who completed the task in the presence of an observer did not reliably differ in their estimates of personal control. In Exp III, the pattern of results found in Exps I and II was replicated under conditions in which observers were present while Ss received frequently occurring outcomes. Overall findings demonstrate that the consistently accurate personal control estimates of depressed Ss that have been found across a variety of situations break down when Ss complete a contingency learning task in the presence of an observer, and outcomes occur independently of response at a high frequency. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)