Incidental Recall Task Research Articles

Cognitive processing of emotional information during menstrual phases in women with and without postpartum depression: differential sensitivity to changes in gonadal steroids.

Gonadal steroids (GSs) have been repeatedly shown to play a central role in the onset of postpartum depression (PPD). The underlying mechanisms, however, are only partially understood. We investigated the relationship between cognitive processing of emotional information and naturally occurring hormonal fluctuations in women with and without previous PPD. Euthymic, parous women, with a history (hPPD, n=32) and without a history (nhPPD, n=43) of PPD, were assessed during late-follicular and late-luteal phases. Participants were administered cognitive tasks assessing attention (dot-probe; emotional Stroop), evaluation (self-referential encoding) and incidental recall, and self-report measures. Menstrual-phase-specific differences were found between late-follicular vs. late-luteal phases among hPPD only, with depression-associated patterns observed in the late-luteal phase on the self-referential encoding and incidental recall task and emotional Stroop task, but not on the dot-probe task. No main effect for menstrual phase was found on any of the tasks or questionnaires, apart from the brooding component of rumination. Women with hPPD demonstrate a differential bias in cognitive processing of emotional information that is menstrual phase dependent, and did not correspond to similar difference in mood symptoms. These biases may reflect sensitivity to gonadal steroid fluctuations that are associated with PPD.

Memory for future actions: the effect of prospective memory on an explicit and implicit memory task.

In the field of retrospective memory, an explicit and implicit memory are known to exist. This study analyses the effect of the prospective memory on a recognition task and a lexical decision task. In experiment 1 (n = 78, of which 39 belonged to the experimental group and 39 belonged to the control group), a recognition task was followed by an intentional task, as well as an incidental free recall task. In experiment 2 (n = 74, of which 37 belonged to the experimental group and 37 belonged to the control group), repetition priming was studied during a lexical decision task, followed by an intentional task. The data were analysed using a mixed ANOVA. Experiment 1 showed active monitoring of the prospective memory task accompanied by a recollective search process during the recognition task. The group which carried out the prospective task also showed better scores in the incidental free recall task. Experiment 2 showed active monitoring and repetition priming during the lexical decision task. While the prospective memory affects the performance in both concurrent tasks, it does not affect the recollective search process or repetition priming.

Coherence Between Attentional and Memory Biases in Sad and Formerly Depressed Individuals

Cognitive theories assume a uniform processing bias across different samples, but the empirical support for this claim is rather weak and inconsistent. Therefore, coherence between biases across different cognitive domains in a sample of 133 non-depressed (Study 1) and a sample of 266 formerly depressed individuals (Study 2) was examined. In both studies, individuals were selected after a successful sad mood induction procedure. A Dot Probe task, an Emotional Stroop task and a self-referential Incidental Learning and Free Recall task were administered to all participants. Principle component analyses indicated coherence between attentional and memory bias in non-depressed, while in formerly depressed individuals distinct components for attentional biases and for memory bias were uncovered. The data suggest that in formerly depressed individuals, self-referent processing during encoding may be related to memory bias, whereas in non-depressed individuals memory bias may be related to both attentional bias and self-referent processing.

Memory biases in remitted depression: The role of negative cognitions at explicit and automatic processing levels

Background and objectivesCognitive models propose that depression is caused by dysfunctional schemas that endure beyond the depressive episode, representing vulnerability factors for recurrence. However, research testing negative cognitions linked to dysfunctional schemas in formerly depressed individuals is still scarce. Furthermore, negative cognitions are presumed to be linked to biases in recalling negative self-referent information in formerly depressed individuals, but no studies have directly tested this association.In the present study, we evaluated differences between formerly and never-depressed individuals in several experimental indices of negative cognitions and their associations with the recall of emotional self-referent material. MethodsFormerly (n = 30) and never depressed individuals (n = 40) completed measures of explicit (i.e., scrambled sentence test) and automatic (i.e., lexical decision task) processing to evaluate negative cognitions. Furthermore participants completed a self-referent incidental recall task to evaluate memory biases. ResultsFormerly compared to never depressed individuals showed greater negative cognitions at both explicit and automatic levels of processing. Results also showed greater recall of negative self-referent information in formerly compared to never-depressed individuals. Finally, individual differences in negative cognitions at both explicit and automatic levels of processing predicted greater recall of negative self-referent material in formerly depressed individuals. LimitationsAnalyses of the relationship between explicit and automatic processing indices and memory biases were correlational and the majority of participants in both groups were women. ConclusionsOur findings provide evidence of negative cognitions in formerly depressed individuals at both automatic and explicit levels of processing that may confer a cognitive vulnerability to depression.

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

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 non-depressed 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 hypothesised 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 provide further support for the combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression. Theoretical and clinical implications of our findings are discussed.

Cognitive biases in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and depression – a pilot study

Comorbid depression is highly prevalent in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and associated with a worse course of disease; however, the exact mechanisms linking both remain unclear. In currently depressed individuals without lung disease, depression-specific biases in information processing have been suggested as risk factors for the development and maintenance of depression. We examined whether comparable biases in cognitive information processing might underlie depression in COPD. Different aspects of cognitive information processing were examined with computer-based tasks measuring selective attention and memory in patients with COPD who were compared with age-matched, currently depressed patients without lung disease and healthy control participants. The Self-Referential Encoding and Incidental Recall Task as well as the emotion face dot-probe task was applied to 21 never-depressed COPD patients, 18 currently depressed COPD patients, 20 currently depressed patients without lung disease and 19 healthy controls to examine cognitive biases. In both patients with COPD who were never and who were currently depressed, depression-like cognitive biases were observed for some attention- and memory-related tasks, but not for all tested aspects of information processing. These biases were particularly prominent in patients with COPD and current depression and comparable to those observed in currently depressed patients without lung disease. The results of this pilot study suggest that patients with COPD may potentially show depression-like biases in some aspects of cognitive information processing. Future studies are required to examine whether these biases represent a vulnerability factor for the development of depression in patients with COPD.

Specificity of cognitive biases in patients with current depression and remitted depression and in patients with asthma

Previous studies have demonstrated a specific cognitive bias for sad stimuli in currently depressed patients; little is known, however, about whether this bias persists after recovery from the depressive episode. Depression is frequently observed in patients with asthma and is associated with a worse course of the disease. Given these high rates of co-morbidity, we could expect to observe a similar bias towards sad stimuli in patients with asthma. We therefore examined cognitive biases in memory and attention in 20 currently and 20 formerly depressed participants, 20 never-depressed patients diagnosed with asthma, and 20 healthy control participants. All participants completed three cognitive tasks: the self-referential encoding and incidental recall task, the emotion face dot-probe task and the emotional Stroop task. Compared with healthy participants, currently and formerly depressed participants, but not patients with asthma, exhibited specific biases for sad stimuli. These results suggest that cognitive biases are evident in depression even after recovery from an acute episode but are not found in never-depressed patients with asthma.

Memory, maternal representations, and internalizing symptomatology among abused, neglected, and nonmaltreated children.

A depth-of-processing incidental recall task for maternal-referent stimuli was utilized to assess basic memory processes and the affective valence of maternal representations among abused (N = 63), neglected (N = 33), and nonmaltreated (N = 128) school-aged children (ages 8-13.5 years old). Self-reported and observer-rated indices of internalizing symptoms were also assessed. Abused children demonstrated impairments in recall compared to neglected and nonmaltreated children. Although abused, neglected, and nonmaltreated children did not differ in valence of maternal representations, positive and negative maternal schemas related to internalizing symptoms differently among subgroups of maltreated children. Valence of maternal schema was critical in differentiating those with high and low internalizing symptomatology among the neglected children only. Implications for clinical intervention and prevention efforts are underscored.

No strong evidence for abnormal levels of dysfunctional attitudes, automatic thoughts, and emotional information‐processing biases in remitted bipolar I affective disorder

Beck extended his original cognitive theory of depression by suggesting that mania was a mirror image of depression characterized by extreme positive cognition about the self, the world, and the future. However, there were no suggestions what might be special regarding cognitive features in bipolar patients (Mansell & Scott, 2006). We therefore used different indicators to evaluate cognitive processes in bipolar patients and healthy controls. We compared 19 remitted bipolar I patients (BPs) without any Axis I comorbidity with 19 healthy individuals (CG). All participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, the Emotional Stroop Test, and an incidental recall task. No significant group differences were found in automatic thinking and the information-processing styles (Emotional Stroop Test, incidental recall task). Regarding dysfunctional attitudes, we obtained ambiguous results. It appears that individuals with remitted bipolar affective disorder do not show cognitive vulnerability as proposed in Beck's theory of depression if they only report subthreshold levels of depressive symptoms. Perhaps, the cognitive vulnerability might only be observable if mood induction procedures are used.

The effect of developmental regulation on visual attention: The example of the "biological clock"

The current study investigated the attentional mechanisms associated with goal engagement and disengagement in a lifespan context. Women approaching the end of their childbearing years (N = 29) were compared with women who had passed that deadline (N = 28). Participants' goal engagement was measured with a goal nomination task, an incidental recall task of goal-relevant sentences, visual attention to goal-relevant vs. goal-irrelevant images, and a memory task of goal-relevant images. The attention data indicated that women approaching the deadline had a longer first fixation on baby images than women who had passed the deadline. This novel finding was supported by a replication of the previous finding that women approaching the deadline were more engaged with the goal of childbearing than women who had passed the deadline. The connection between attention and memory of goal-relevant information is explored as evidence of cognition working in the service of motivation and developmental regulation.

A demonstration of attentional bias, using a novel dual task paradigm, towards clinically salient material in recovering alcohol abuse patients?

This study examined whether alcohol abuse patients are characterized either by enhanced schematic processing of alcohol related cues or by an attentional bias towards the processing of alcohol cues. Abstinent alcohol abusers (N = 25) and non-clinical control participants (N = 24) performed a dual task paradigm in which they had to make an odd/even decision to a centrally presented number while performing a peripherally presented lexical decision task. Stimuli on the lexical decision task comprised alcohol words, neutral words and non-words. In addition, participants completed an incidental recall task for the words presented in the lexical decision task. It was found that, in the presence of alcohol related words, the performance of patients on the odd/even decision task was poorer than in the presence of other stimului. In addition, patients displayed slower lexical decision times for alcohol related words. Both groups displayed better recall for alcohol words than for other stimuli. These results are interpreted as supporting neither model of drug cravings. Rather, it is proposed that, in the presence of alcohol stimuli, alcohol abuse patients display a breakdown in the ability to focus attention.

Short-term memory of children with and without characteristics of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The effects of verbal interference and strategy instruction on recall of visual and auditory material were assessed in children with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). Children were randomly assigned to a strategy instruction or to a control group and (a) completed two sets (four administrations) of the Learning Efficiency Test (LET)-II, (b) a self-report measure of ‘task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs),’ and (c) an incidental sentence recall task. Recall of both visual and auditory material was greater for those children who received strategy instruction and when there was no added interference. Poor memory and failure to filter incoming stimulation were not supported as explanations of AD/HD under the conditions of this study.

Marital Satisfaction and an Information-Processing Measure of Partner-Schemas

In comparison with most research on relationship cognitions that has focused on cognitive contents as assessed by self-report measures, this study introduces an information-processing measure of partner-schemas, based on the incidental recall task. Indices from this task include judgments as to whether negative and positive personal adjectives describe the partner (i.e., a measure of schema content) and incidental recall of adjectives initially endorsed as describing the partner (i.e., a measure of facilitated recall of schema-relevant information). Results from a sample of married couples indicated that the newly introduced measure of partner—schemas was correlated with marital satisfaction, and that these correlations remained significant when controlling for symptoms of depression. These findings suggest that the incidental recall task may be a useful measure of partner-schemas.

On the psychology of drinking: being thirsty and perceptually ready.

The present research is concerned with cognitive effects of habitually regulated primary motives. Specifically, two experiments tested the idea that feelings of thirst enhance the cognitive accessibility of, or readiness to perceive, action-relevant stimuli. In a task allegedly designed to assess mouth-detection skills, some participants were made to feel thirsty, whereas others were not. Results showed that participants who were made thirsty responded faster to drinking-related items in a lexical decision task, and performed better on an incidental recall task of drinking-related items, relative to no-thirst control participants. These results suggest that basic needs and motives, such as thirst, causes a heightened perceptual readiness to environmental cues that are instrumental in satisfying these needs.

Affective reactions to acoustic stimuli

Emotional reactions to naturally occurring sounds (e.g., screams, erotica, bombs, etc.) were investigated in two studies. In Experiment 1, subjects rated the pleasure and arousal elicited when listening to each of 60 sounds, followed by an incidental free recall task. The shape of the two-dimensional affective space defined by the mean ratings for each sound was similar to that previously obtained for pictures, and, like memory for pictures, free recall was highest for emotionally arousing stimuli. In Experiment 2, autonomic and facial electromyographic (EMG) activity were recorded while a new group of subjects listened to the same set of sounds; the startle reflex was measured using visual probes. Listening to unpleasant sounds resulted in larger startle reflexes, more corrugator EMG activity, and larger heart rate deceleration compared with listening to pleasant sounds. Electrodermal reactions were larger for emotionally arousing than for neutral materials. Taken together, the data suggest that acoustic cues activate the appetitive and defensive motivational circuits underlying emotional expression in ways similar to pictures.

Trauma, mental representation, and the organization of memory for mother-referent material.

Research on the effects of child maltreatment and exposure to community violence suggests that children who experience these types of traumatic events may be at risk for alterations and biases in attention and memory similar to those that have been observed in adults suffering from traumatic stress reactions. Along these lines, attachment theory posits that representational models of relationships also may act as moderators of similar cognitive biases by selectively guiding children's attention to and processing of interpersonal stimuli. Building upon the trauma and attachment literatures, the present investigation examined the links among trauma, representational models of caregivers, and children's memory for mother-relevant information using an incidental recall task in a sample of maltreated (n = 71) and nonmaltreated (n = 102) children between the ages of 8 and 13 years. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that experiences of trauma and representational models of caregivers are associated with differences in the way children process and retrieve information about positive and negative mother attribute words. In particular, experiences of trauma initially were associated with increased insecurity in children's representational models. Moreover, the interaction of traumatic experience and security of mental representation predicted children's recall for mother attribute words: victimized children with insecure models recalled the highest proportion of negative mother stimuli. Trauma and mental representation did not have a consistent effect on structurally encoded aspects of recall. Results were discussed in terms of the ways in which children who have experienced trauma process information about their worlds. The importance of assessing functioning in multiple developmental domains when studying memory also was discussed.

Use of a modified Stroop task to examine appearance-schematic information processing in college women

A computerized Stroop color-naming task was usedto compare the information processing of 55appearance-schematic and 50 appearance-aschematic women,based on their scores on the Appearance SchemasInventory (ASI). Participants color-named appearancewords (e.g., OVERWEIGHT, LIPSTICK ) and nonappearancewords (e.g., OBNOXIOUS, BRIDEGROOM ) after exposure toeither a neutral condition or a "priming" condition that emphasized their bodysize/appearance. Primed schematic persons exhibitedgreater Stroop interference in color-naming appearanceversus nonappearance words compared to nonprimedschematics and both primed and nonprimed aschematics. Onan incidental recall task, a modest but significantpositive correlation was observed between ASI scores andthe percentage of appearance words among words subsequently recalled. These and other findingsprovide evidence of the construct validity of the ASI ina nonclinical population and offer a foundation on whichto advance the study of cognitive models of body image and clinical body-imagedisturbances.

Change in affective state assessed by impaired color-naming of threat-related words

This study investigated the effects of mood induction on Stroop color-naming times for threat-related words. The subjects’ task was to color-name sets of threat-related words and affectively neutral matched control words both before and after mood-induction. Subjects were shown a short film about the medical effects of nuclear war (negative affect manipulation), a humorous cartoon, or no film. A significant and highly reliable color-naming decrement of the threat-related words was observed only after the negative affect manipulation. This indicates that the attentional bias towards the processing of threat-related material observed in clinically anxious or high Trait-Anxious subjects can be induced in initially nonanxious subjects. An incidental recall task included in the procedure provided no evidence of mood state dependent recall.

Effects of post-trial administration of nicotine on human memory: evaluating the conditions for improving memory

In the studies reported here, we investigated the effects of nicotine on memory for unrelated word lists. Nicotine was delivered through cigarette smoking, and memory performance was assessed using both intentional and incidental recall tasks, and employing an additional, indirect measure of memory. We report the results of four experiments in which we manipulated 1) the intake of nicotine using nicotine-containing and nicotine-free cigarettes, 2) the associative aspects of the word-sets, by unrelated words and category words and by instructing subjects to use an associative mnemonic strategy, 3) the opportunity for rehearsal between the presentation and recall, and 4) the time of nicotine administration, post- or pre-trial. We found a positive effect of post-trial nicotine on memory in the incidental recall task, as indicated by enhanced repetition priming, but no effect of nicotine on either immediate recall or pronunciation times (experiments 1 and 2). In experiment 3 we examined the effects of post-trial nicotine using associative and unrelated word-lists, when volunteers were instructed to use an associative mnemonic strategy. We found no main effect of nicotine, but when volunteers were distracted from rehearsal, related words were recalled better than unrelated words. Experiment 4 was a positive control for the timing of nicotine administration within our experimental design, and this showed that pre-trial nicotine not only improved free recall but differentially enhanced the recall of category words over unrelated words.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Validity of Beck's Cognitive Theory of Depression With Nonreferred Adolescents

This study investigated the validity of Beck's cognitive theory of depression in a sample of nonreferred adolescents, ages 14 to 18 years. In support of the theory, students' greater levels of depressive symptomatology on the Beck Depression Inventory were found to be most significantly associated with higher scores on both the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale and Hopelessness Scale. The results were less consistent with regard to the relationships between the students' levels of depressive symptomatology and their recall of positive and negative self‐referent adjectives on an incidental recall task. The implications of the study and directions for future research are discussed.