Recognition memory in depression.

Research suggests that the poor performance of depressed patients on memory tests reflects cautious response criteria rather than reduced accessibility of memories. Studies of recognition memory enable this issue to be addressed. The present experiment provides the first clear demonstration of a deficit in recognition memory in depression that is not explicable in terms of response bias. A subsidiary concern was to examine the effect of requiring subjects to vocalize words on presentation. This had no significant effects on "hits," but it interacted with depression on "false alarms," suggesting that discrepant claims in the literature regarding the effects of depression on false alarms may be attributable to procedural variations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)