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Training To Inhibit Negative Content Affects Memory And Rumination, Shimrit Daches, Nilly Mor, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Depressive rumination, the tendency to engage in repetitive self-focus in response to distress, seems to be affected by a variety of cognitive biases that in turn maintain negative emotional states. The current study examined whether the difficulty in inhibiting attention to negative information contributes to rumination and to rumination-related biases in memory. Seventy-nine ruminators underwent a 3-week computer-based training, designed to increase either inhibition of negative words or attention to them. On immediate post-training trials, as well as on 2-week follow-up tests, we found evidence for transfer of inhibition training. Training effects also occurred on session-by-session and post-training measures of …

Relation Between Rumination And Impaired Memory In Dysphoric Moods, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

College students in dysphoric or nondysphoric moods studied pairs of words and later took a fragment-completion test of memory for targets from the pairs (under process-dissociation procedures for obtaining estimates of controlled and automatic retrieval; L. L. Jacoby, 1996). Between the study and test phases, some participants waited quietly for 7 min; others rated self-focused materials designed to invoke ruminations in the dysphoric group; and still others rated self-irrelevant and task-irrelevant materials. A dysphoria-related impairment in controlled retrieval occurred in the first 2 conditions but not in the 3rd condition. These results show that the nature of task-irrelevant thoughts contributes …

The Effects Of Rumination Induction On Attentional Breadth For Self-Related Information, Maud Grol, Paula T. Hertel, Ernst H.W Koster, Rudi De Raedt

Paula T Hertel

The attentional scope model of rumination describes the links between rumination and attentional breadth. The model postulates that a more narrow attentional scope, caused by negative mood, increases the likelihood that thoughts become repetitive on the same topic, which in turn could exacerbate negative mood and lead to more attentional narrowing. We experimentally tested this model by examining the attentional effects of rumination using a newly developed rumination- versus problem-solving induction. In the first experiment we found that only at high levels of trait rumination, induction of rumination compared to a problem-solving approach was associated with more attentional narrowing for …

Rumination: Cognitive Consequences Of Training To Inhibit The Negative, Shimrit Daches, Nilly Mor, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Background and Objectives: To explore cognitive factors in ruminative thinking, we assessed the effect of a single-session of inhibition training on subsequent biases in attention and interpretation.

Methods: We randomly assigned participants to either inhibit or attend to negative stimuli. Inhibition was assessed by using assessment trials embedded throughout the training, and interpretation bias was assessed following the training.

Results: Trait rumination moderated training effects on both measures. Low ruminators in the inhibition-training condition maintained their level of inhibition of negative stimuli, but those in the attention-training condition showed a non-significant trend for decreased inhibition. Participants also showed a transfer-congruent …

Cognition In Emotional Disorders: An Abundance Of Habit And A Dearth Of Control, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Emotional and other psychological disorders are categories of experience identified at least in part by the goal of having treatment plans for people in distress. Because the categories exist for such purposes, research efforts are organized to discover distinctions among the categories and between disordered and nondisordered individuals. Many of these distinctions are cognitive. When clinical scientists began experimental studies, the term “cognitive” had been used to refer primarily to conscious thoughts that characterize disorders (see Beck, 1976), but in more recent decades the term signifies an experimental approach framed according to the theories and paradigms of cognitive psychology. In …

Looking On The Dark Side: Rumination And Cognitive Bias Modification, Paula T. Hertel, Nilly Mor, Chiara Ferrari, Olivia Hunt, Nupur Agrawal

Paula T Hertel

To understand cognitive bases of self-reported ruminative tendencies, we examined interpretations and subsequent memories of ambiguous situations depicting opportunities for rumination. In Experiment 1, we recruited students, randomly assigned them to a distracting or ruminative concentration task, and then measured their latencies to complete fragments that resolved situational ambiguity in either a ruminative or a benign direction. Students in the ruminative task condition who previously self-identified as brooders were quicker to complete ruminative fragments. In Experiment 2, we simulated this bias to investigate its possible contribution to rumination; nonbrooding students were trained to make ruminative or benign resolutions of ambiguous …

Cognitive Habits And Memory Distortions In Anxiety And Depression, Paula T. Hertel, Faith Brozovich

Paula T Hertel

When anxious or depressed people try to recall emotionally ambiguous events, they produce errors that reflect their habits of interpreting ambiguity in negative ways. These distortions are revealed by experiments that evaluate performance on memory tasks after taking interpretation biases into account—an alternative to the standard memory-bias procedure that examines the accuracy of memory for clearly emotional material. To help establish the causal role of interpretation bias in generating memory bias, these disortions have been simulated by training interpretation biases in nondisordered groups. The practical implications of these findings for therapeutic intervention are discussed; future directions are described.

Cognitive Bias Modification: Past Perspectives, Current Findings, And Future Applications, Paula T. Hertel, Andrew Mathews

Paula T Hertel

Research conducted within the general paradigm of Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) reveals that emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory are not merely associated with emotional disorders but contribute to them. After briefly describing research on both emotional biases and their modification, we examine similarities between CBM paradigms and older experimental paradigms used in research on learning and memory. We also compare the techniques and goals of CBM research to other approaches to understanding cognition/emotion interactions. From a functional perspective, the CBM tradition reminds us to use experimental tools to evaluate assumptions about clinical phenomena and more generally, about causal …

Suppression-Induced Forgetting On A Free-Association Test, Paula T. Hertel, Daniel Large, Ellen Stuck, Allison Levy

Paula T Hertel

The repeated suppression of thoughts in response to cues for their expression leads to forgetting on a subsequent test of cued recall (Anderson & Green, 2001). We extended this effect by using homograph cues and presenting them for free association following suppression practice. Cue-target pairs were first learned under integrating imagery instructions; then in the think/no-think phase students practiced suppressing thoughts connected to some homograph cues, with or without the assistance of thought substitutes that changed their meaning. Below-baseline forgetting on the subsequent free-association test was found in the production of suppressed targets. Following aided suppression, this effect was also …

Interpretation Bias Characterizes Trait Rumination, Nilly Mor, Paula T. Hertel, Thuy Anh Ngo, Tal Shachar, Shimrit Redak

Paula T Hertel

Background and Objectives: Rumination, a maladaptive cognitive style of responding to negative mood, is thought to be maintained by a variety of cognitive biases. However, it is unknown whether rumination is characterized by interpretation biases.

Methods: Two experiments examined the link between rumination and interpretation biases, revealed in lexical-decision tasks (LDT). A homograph with both benign and ruminative or otherwise negative meaning was presented on each trial and followed by a letter string, to which participants responded by judging whether it was a word or a non-word. Letter strings were nonwords or words related or unrelated to one meaning of …

Remembering Reactions And Facts: The Influence Of Subsequent Information, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Memory for reactions and judgments about a biographical passage was examined following the presentation of subsequent information relevant to the passage. Experiment 1 demonstrated that reaction memory shifted as a function of the type of subsequent information when 3 weeks separated it from the memory test, but not when testing was immediate or when the information was delivered just prior to the delayed test. These results were obtained again in Experiment 2 and contrasted to shifts in memory for· passage facts. Misleading factual information influenced memory for passage facts most when it was delivered just before the delayed recognition test. …

Recalling In A State Of Natural Or Experimental Depression, Paula T. Hertel, S. Rude

Paula T Hertel

In three experiments we attempted to extend the cognitive-effort account of depressive deficits in memory to naturally depressed college students. This account maintains that depression reduces attentional resources, thereby impairing performance on demanding tasks, and has received support through experimental inductions of depressed moods. Nondepressed, naturally depressed, and (in Experiment 2) experimentally depressed college students performed unannounced tests of free recall following learning tasks with two levels of difficulty and (in Experiment 2) two degrees of structure. In Experiments 1 and 2 we measured cognitive effort on those tasks via latencies on a secondary task. Latencies and subsequent recall increased …

Bonuses And Bribes: Mood Effects In Memory, A. K. Boggiano, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Free recall of emotionally positive, neutral, and negative adjectives was used as an indirect assessment of the effects of reward on expectations about intrinsic interest. Reward for performing later activities described as interesting (a "bonus" orientation) produced recall of a greater number of emotionally positive adjectives, whereas reward for the same activities described as boring (a "bribe" orientation) produced recall of a larger number of negative adjectives. A cued-expectancy analysis suggests that reward serves to polarize initial attitude about forthcoming tasks; these polarized attitudes, like moods, influence the nature of words retrieved from memory.

Effects Of Alcohol And Expectancy Upon Episodic Memory In Individuals Reporting Alcoholic Blackouts, W. R. Miller, Paula T. Hertel, C. Saucedo, R. K. Hester

Paula T Hertel

In a within-subject placebo design, 10 heavy drinkers reporting alcoholic blackouts showed significant decrements in episodic memory when receiving alcohol but not on days when a placebo was given. Parallel deficits were observed on recall and recognition measures. On placebo days, self-ratings of intoxication were related to the degree of observed performance decrement. Memory deficits appear to be primarily pharmacologic rather than expectancy effects of drinking.

Depressive Deficits In Word Identification And Recall, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Depressed and nondepressed adults rated positive, negative, and neutral nouns for their emotional value or their physical curvature. Next, they tried to identify previously rated and unrated words that were presented quite briefly and masked. Depressed subjects' identification showed a reduced effect of prior exposure in the curvature task but no deficit when words had been rated for emotion. On a subsequent test of free recall, both a depressive deficit and a rating effect obtained. These results suggest that depressed people are less likely to process beyond the requirements of the task.

Depression-Related Impairments In Prospective Memory, S. Rude, Paula T. Hertel, W. Jarrold, J. Covich, S. Hedlund

Paula T Hertel

Time-based prospective memory, the ability to carry out a future intention at a specified time, was found to be impaired in a community sample of clinically depressed adults, relative to a nondepressed sample. Nondepressed participants monitored the time more frequently and, in the final block of the task, accelerated time-monitoring as the target time for the prospective memory response approached. These results are consistent with previous findings of depression-related impairments in retrospective memory tasks that require controlled, self-initiated processing.

On The Contribution Of Deficient Cognitive Control To Memory Impairment In Depression, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

Research on cognitive biases in depression suggests that deficient control of attention underlies impairments in memory for emotionally neutral events. Such impairments might result from general difficulties in focusing and sustaining attention, specific and habitual priorities to attend to matters of personal concern, or both. This paper considers these alternative means of impairment in the context of a review of selected theories and findings; a test of the framework is illustrated; and related considerations are discussed.

Depressive Deficits In Memory: Focusing Attention Improves Subsequent Recall, Paula T. Hertel, S. S. Rude

Paula T Hertel

Ss diagnosed as depressed, recovered from depression, or without a history of depression performed an unintentional learning task, followed by tests of free and forced recall. In the learning task, Ss decided whether a series of nouns sensibly completed corresponding sentence frames that varied in decision difficulty. For half of the Ss, the focus of attention was unconstrained by the demands of this task. The others, however, were required to repeat the targeted noun at the end of the trial as a means of focusing their attention on the task. Depressed Ss in the unfocused condition subsequently recalled fewer words …

Implications Of External Memory For Investigations Of Mind, Paula T. Hertel

Paula T Hertel

No abstract provided.

The Accuracy Of Beliefs About Retrieval Cues, Paula T. Hertel, L. J. Anooshian, P. W. Ashbrook

Paula T Hertel

We investigated the accuracy of predictions about semantic, environmental, and phonological cues for remembering. Subjects rated the pleasantness of 10 words in each of four rooms, predicted the number of words that they would recall with and without one of the three types of cues, and then were tested for free or cued recall. Consistent with their predictions, subjects who received semantic cuesrecalled more words than did subjects in the free-recall group. The subjects in the other cuing conditions did not benefit from the cues; furthermore, they overestimated the value of phonological cues, and they believed that environmental cues were …