Cascading effects of attention bias on information processing in dysphoria: a path analysis approach to examine the combined cognitive bias hypothesis

Introduction. Guided by cognitive models of depression, research has yielded substantial empirical data demonstrating emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory in depression. Although the past years have seen an accumulative number of studies examining the coherence among cognitive biases, scientific understanding of how these biased cognitive processes are interlinked remains limited in depressed samples. Objectives and Methodology. This study investigated the interplay between attention, interpretation, and memory biases in dysphoria. The sample consisted of 19 dysphoric and 37 non-dysphoric undergraduate students. Participants completed a computerized version of the scrambled sentences test while their eye movements were recorded. A subsequent incidental free recall task assessed memory for the unscrambled sentences. Results. Dysphoric individuals exhibited negative biases in attention (total fixation durations on negative vs. positive words within a scrambled sentence), interpretation (percentage of emotional sentences unscrambled negatively) and memory (percentage of emotional sentences recalled negatively). Significant positive correlations between all bias indices emerged. Path analyses tested models including and excluding mutual relations among biases in a theory-driven manner. An acceptable fit was found only for a model including interrelations. Parameter estimates indicated that dysphoria group status predicted attention (p=.07) and interpretation biases (p<.001). Attention biases predicted interpretation biases (p=.05) which in turn predicted memory biases (p<.001). Discussion and Conclusion. The observed correlations among bias indices provide support for the broader construct of information-processing bias. Consistent with predictions by cognitive accounts, results suggest that biases rather operate in concert than in isolation and provide preliminary support for a cascading effect of attention bias on interpretation and memory biases.

Publication year:2012