The attribution of value-based attentional priority in individuals with depressive symptoms

The capture of attention by stimuli previously associated with reward has been demonstrated across a wide range of studies. Such value-based attentional priority appears to be robust, and cases where reward feedback fails to modulate subsequent attention have not been reported. However, individuals differ in their sensitivity to external rewards, and such sensitivity is abnormally blunted in depression. Here, we show that depressive symptomology is accompanied by insensitivity to value-based attentional bias. We replicate attentional capture by stimuli previously associated with reward in a control sample and show that these same reward-related stimuli do not capture attention in individuals experiencing symptoms of depression. This sharp contrast in performance indicates that value-based attentional biases depend on the normal functioning of the brain's reward system and suggests that a failure to preferentially attend to reward-related information may play a role in the experience of depression.     

Activation of brain attention systems in individuals with symptoms of ADHD

Previous research investigating attention and impulse control in individuals with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has largely ignored the symptomatic differences among the three subtypes of ADHD: ADHD-Inattentive Type, ADHD-Hyperactive/Impulsive Type, and ADHD-Combined Type. The present study examined attention and impulse control by focusing on these subtypes. Based on their self-reported symptoms of ADHD, participants belonged to one of four groups: ADHD-Inattentive, ADHD-Hyperactive/Impulsive, ADHD-Combined, and control. Cortical activity was recorded from participants during performance of a Go/NoGo task. The event-related potentials (ERP) measured at frontal and posterior sites discriminated between the control group and participants with symptoms of ADHD. The control group consistently exhibited a higher P3 amplitude than all the ADHD groups. The main difference occurred at the frontal site, indicating that individuals with ADHD symptoms have deficits in the anterior attentional system, which mediates signal detection. Behavioral measures of signal sensitivity revealed that the ADHD-Inattentive and the ADHD-Hyperactive/Impulsive groups had more difficulty with the attention-demanding Go/NoGo respond-to-target task, while behavioral measures of response bias indicated that the ADHD-Hyperactive/Impulsive and the ADHD-Combined groups responded more liberally in the inhibition-demanding Go/NoGo suppress-to-target task.     

Relations among self-reported depressive symptoms in clinic-referred children versus adolescents.

Although there is consensus regarding the existence of childhood depression, disagreement remains as to whether symptoms are developmentally isomorphic. Previous studies focused on developmental differences in symptom levels; analyses of relations among symptoms may be more appropriate, however. Here both approaches were used to compare the Children's Depression Inventory responses from 1,030 clinic-referred children and adolescents. Four of nine symptom categories showed significant developmental differences in their correlations with total score. Externalizing behavior and guilt were more strongly related to depression in children than adolescents; affective symptoms and concerns about the future showed the reverse pattern. Results illustrate the importance of considering relations among symptoms as well as differences in symptom levels when evaluating theoretical claims about developmental differences in the nature of clinical syndromes.     

Modifying automatic approach action tendencies in individuals with elevated social anxiety symptoms

Research suggests that social anxiety is associated with a reduced approach orientation for positive social cues. In the current study we examined the effect of experimentally manipulating automatic approach action tendencies on the social behavior of individuals with elevated social anxiety symptoms. The experimental paradigm comprised a computerized Approach Avoidance Task (AAT) in which participants responded to pictures of faces conveying positive or neutral emotional expressions by pulling a joystick toward themselves (approach) or by moving it to the right (sideways control). Participants were randomly assigned to complete an AAT designed to increase approach tendencies for positive social cues by pulling these cues toward themselves on the majority of trials, or to a control condition in which there was no contingency between the arm movement direction and picture type. Following the manipulation, participants took part in a relationship-building task with a trained confederate. Results revealed that participants trained to approach positive stimuli displayed greater social approach behaviors during the social interaction and elicited more positive reactions from their partner compared to participants in the control group. These findings suggest that modifying automatic approach tendencies may facilitate engagement in the types of social approach behaviors that are important for relationship development.     

Brief body-scan meditation practice improves somatosensory perceptual decision making

We have previously found that attention to internal somatic sensations (interoceptive attention) during a heart beat perception task increases the misperception of external touch on a somatic signal detection task (SSDT), during which healthy participants erroneously report feeling near-threshold vibrations presented to their fingertip in the absence of a stimulus. However, it has been suggested that mindful interoceptive attention should result in more accurate somatic perception, due to its non-evaluative and controlled nature. To investigate this possibility, 62 participants completed the SSDT before and after a period of brief body-scan mindfulness meditation training, or a control intervention (listening to a recorded story). The meditation intervention reduced tactile misperception and increased sensitivity during the SSDT. This finding suggests that the perceptual effects of interoceptive attention depend on its particular nature, and raises the possibility that body-scan meditation could reduce the misperception of physical symptoms in individuals with medically unexplained symptoms.     

Visual field asymmetries in attention vary with self-reported attention deficits

The purpose of this study was to determine whether an index of self-reported attention deficits predicts the pattern of visual field asymmetries observed in behavioral measures of attention. Studies of “normal” subjects do not present a consistent pattern of asymmetry in attention functions, with some studies showing better left visual field (LVF) performance, others showing no asymmetry or even a right visual field (RVF) advantage. Here we found that a participant variable (a measure of self-reported attention problems) may help to explain these inconsistencies. We used Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales to measure self-reported attention problems in a group of 36 normal (non-ADHD) subjects, and we used two behavioral tasks to directly measure their attentional abilities: a lateralized Attention Network Task (ANT) and a visual search task. Comparing subjects with relatively Low versus High scores on the attention-deficit (AD) scale, we found that subjects with High scores were less efficient in orienting attention to the left visual field. When LVF targets were preceded by a valid spatial cue, response times were positively correlated with AD scores, indicating slower covert-attention shifts as attention-deficit scores increased. Right visual field data showed a different pattern of results. Subjects with High AD scores were at least as efficient as those with Low AD scores in orienting attention to the RVF. This study provides evidence that visual field asymmetries in orienting attention vary across individuals, and that level of self-reported attention problems correlates with behavioral deficiencies in orienting attention to the left visual field.     

Perfectionism and ethnicity: implications for depressive symptoms and self-reported academic achievement

Ethnic differences in perfectionism were examined among Asian American, African American, and Caucasian American college students. Analyses revealed that Asian American students scored significantly higher than the other groups on 3 of 6 perfectionism subscales. Minority students reported significantly higher parental expectations than Caucasian students. Significant correlations emerged for all 3 groups between depressive symptoms and concerns about making mistakes, perceived criticism from parents, and self-doubt. In regression analyses, perfectionism explained significant variance in depressive symptoms for Asian Americans and Caucasians and explained significant variance in cumulative grade point average for Asian Americans and African Americans. Self-doubt emerged as a robust individual predictor in these analyses.     

Grateful individuals are not suicidal: Buffering risks associated with hopelessness and depressive symptoms

With suicidal behavior serving as a leading cause of injury and death around the world, researchers must expand ongoing efforts to uncover protective factors. In this study, we examined if gratitude mitigated existing risk factors for suicide. Specifically, we predicted that gratitude moderates the relationship between suicidal ideation and (a) hopelessness and (b) depressive symptoms in a sample of 369 diverse undergraduate students. Results indicate that for people who are highly grateful, both hopelessness and depressive symptoms are less likely to be associated with thoughts and intentions to kill oneself. The findings demonstrate the value of integrating protective factors against suicidality, including character strengths such as gratitude, into existing theories that tend to be limited to vulnerability factors. We offer tentative ideas for enhancing the impact of suicide prevention and intervention programs by directly addressing gratitude, which has been shown to be highly modifiable.     

Interoceptive and exteroceptive attention have opposite effects on subsequent somatosensory perceptual decision making

Evidence suggests that interoceptive and exteroceptive attention might have different perceptual effects. However, the effects of these different types of body-focused attention have never been directly compared. The current research investigated how interoceptive and exteroceptive attention affect subsequent performance on the somatic signal detection task (SSDT). In Experiment 1, 37 participants completed the SSDT under usual testing conditions and after performing an interoceptive heartbeat perception task. This task led to a more liberal response criterion, leading to increased touch reports in the presence and absence of a target vibration. This finding is consistent with suggestions that attending internally contributes to physical symptom reporting in patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). In Experiment 2, 40 participants completed the SSDT before and after an exteroceptive grating orientation task. This task led to a more stringent response criterion, leading to decreased touch reports in the presence and absence of the target, possibly via a reduction in sensory noise. This work demonstrates that internal and external body-focused attention can have opposite effects on subsequent somatic perceptual decision making and suggests that attentional training could be useful for patients reporting MUS.     

Receipt of negative feedback is related to increased negative feedback seeking among individuals with depressive symptoms

In recent years, numerous studies have demonstrated a link between positive and negative feedback seeking by depressed individuals, interpersonal rejection, and depression chronicity. Nonetheless, many of the specific interpersonal patterns underlying these links have yet to be clearly specified. One important lingering question concerns how depressed individuals respond to negative evaluation or feedback from others, because continued negative feedback seeking could place depressed people at risk for further rejection and continuation/exacerbation of depressive symptoms. Two studies were conducted to investigate the influence of negative feedback provisions from others on the feedback seeking behaviors of individuals with depressive symptoms. The results from Study 1 indicated an increased tendency to seek negative feedback among depressive individuals in association with an independent negative evaluation by their college roommates. Using a sample of newlywed couples, Study 2 extended this finding by demonstrating that, when directly provided with negative feedback from their spouses, individuals with depressive symptomatology actively sought further negative feedback, while those without such symptoms did not. Together, the results from these studies suggest that depressed individuals are likely to respond to negative evaluation and feedback from others with behaviors that could place them at risk for further rejection and continuing, if not worsening problems with depression.     

Interoceptive and exteroceptive attention have opposite effects on subsequent somatosensory perceptual decision making

Evidence suggests that interoceptive and exteroceptive attention might have different perceptual effects. However, the effects of these different types of body-focused attention have never been directly compared. The current research investigated how interoceptive and exteroceptive attention affect subsequent performance on the somatic signal detection task (SSDT). In Experiment 1, 37 participants completed the SSDT under usual testing conditions and after performing an interoceptive heartbeat perception task. This task led to a more liberal response criterion, leading to increased touch reports in the presence and absence of a target vibration. This finding is consistent with suggestions that attending internally contributes to physical symptom reporting in patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). In Experiment 2, 40 participants completed the SSDT before and after an exteroceptive grating orientation task. This task led to a more stringent response criterion, leading to decreased touch reports in the presence and absence of the target, possibly via a reduction in sensory noise. This work demonstrates that internal and external body-focused attention can have opposite effects on subsequent somatic perceptual decision making and suggests that attentional training could be useful for patients reporting MUS.     

Emotional intelligence in women caregivers with depressive symptoms

The emotional intelligence of a sample of 59 women caregivers (M age = 51.1 yr.) with depressive symptoms was compared with that of a sample of adult women from the general population (M age = 50.7 yr.). No group differences were observed on the Trait Meta-Mood Scale's three dimensions of emotional intelligence across age, socioeconomic status, or education level. Compared with the general population sample, the caregivers group scored significantly lower on Attention to Feelings and Mood Repair.     

Comorbid social anxiety disorder in clients with depressive disorders: predicting changes in depressive symptoms, therapeutic relationships, and focus of attention in group treatment

The current study examined whether depressed outpatients with comorbid SAD respond differently to a cognitive-behavioral group intervention and if so, how and why. Using growth curve modeling, we found evidence that depressed clients with comorbid SAD had rapid improvement in depressive symptoms over the course of treatment and generally did not differ from those without comorbidity in developing close therapeutic relationships and modifying the direction of attentional focus away from the self. Non-linear effects demonstrated that rates of change in depressive symptoms, relationship variables, and focus of attention, were most rapid early in treatment. In contrast to hypotheses, trajectories of change in therapeutic relationships and attentional focus did not mediate the effect of SAD on treatment improvement in depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that comorbid SAD does not have a detrimental effect on the course of depression treatment and group-based treatments can be as beneficial for depressed individuals with comorbid SAD. It may be that group-based treatments for depression provide explicit opportunity for emotional processing in social situations (i.e., exposure) and hence mimic efficacious therapies for SAD.     

Knowledge management in decision making and decision support

A knowledge-oriented view of decisions and decision making is introduced, as a complement to classical perspectives and as a contribution of under-standing computer-based possibilities for relaxing strains on decision makers. This perspective includes a model of knowledge management activities performed by a decision maker and a taxonomy of knowledge types. It leads to a characterization of decision-support-system purpose, traits, and potentials that offers a basis for new research into computer-based possibilities for knowledge management. Clyde W. Holsapple holds the Rosenthal Endowed Chair in Management Information Systems and is Professor of Decision Science and Information Systems at the College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.     

Negatively biased recall in children with self-reported symptoms of depression

This study investigated differences in depressed and nondepressed children's recall of positively and negatively reinforced behavior. Twenty-six children with self-reported symptoms of depression in the fourth through sixth grades were compared with a matched sample of 26 nondepressed children to determine if there was a negative bias in depressed children's recall. Subjects first generated guesses of the most common associations to each of a series of 40 words. Later, when compared with their nondepressed peers, the children with depressive symptomology were less accurate in recalling which words they had answered correctly and remembered fewer of their own correct responses. They also did more poorly when asked to recall the correct answers that had been provided by the investigator. The two groups did not differ, however, in their recall of which items had been answered incorrectly or in their recall of their previous wrong responses. These results suggest that children with self-reported depressive symptomology do not remember negative experiences more than do nondepressed children; rather, they recall positive experiences less well. Selective forgetting of positively reinforced behavior could be a serious handicap for depressed children in school. It could also play an important role in the maintenance and perhaps even the etiology of depressive symptomatology in children.We wish to thank Bruce Compas for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Normal executive attention but abnormal orienting attention in individuals with sluggish cognitive tempo

Background/objective: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) is an attentional disorder characterized by the symptoms of slowness in behavior or thinking, a lack of en.ergy, difficulty initiating and sustaining effort, daydreaming, and drowsiness. The aim of the present study was to investigate the distinctive attentional characteristics of SCT as compared to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Method: A total of 110 adults were recruited and divided into four groups: SCT+ADHD, SCT, ADHD, and healthy controls. The Revised version of Attention Networks Test was used to investigate each group’s attentional profile. Results: The results revealed that the two SCT groups (SCT+ADHD and SCT) showed a significantly weaker orienting network due to the problems of engaging and disengaging attention than the other two groups. Additionally, the two ADHD groups (SCT+ADHD and ADHD) showed a significantly weaker executive control network than the other two groups. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate an attentional distinction between the SCT and the ADHD groups with a greater dysfunction in the orienting network in the SCT group as compared to the ADHD group. Furthermore, a greater executive control dysfunction was observed in the ADHD group as compared to the SCT group.     

An evolutionary approach to support decision making with linear decision models

In this paper we consider decision problems that can be described as linear decision models. These models have been traditionally solved using linear programming, fuzzy linear programming, multiple-objective linear programming or ‘what-if’ analysis. Using these approaches, one encounters a number of difficulties. We propose an ‘evolutionary approach’ to overcome these difficulties. In the proposed approach the decision maker does not have to precisely specify the model (i.e. the objective functions, the RHS values, etc.) at the beginning of the solution procedure. In fact, the model evolves as the solution procedure proceeds.     

Thought-action fusion in individuals with OCD symptoms.

Rachman (Rachman, S. (1993). Obsessions, responsibility, and guilt. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 149-154) suggested that patients with OCD may interpret thoughts as having special importance, thus experiencing thought-action fusion (TAF). Shafran, Thordarson and Rachman (Shafran, R., Thordarson, D. S. & Rachman, S. (1996). Thought-action fusion in obsessive compulsive disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 710, 379-391) developed a questionnaire (TAF) and found that obsessives scored higher than non-obsessives on the measure. In the current study, we modified the TAF to include a scale that assessed the "likelihood of events happening to others" as well as ratings of the responsibility and cost for having these thoughts. Replicating previous findings, we found that individuals with OC symptoms gave higher ratings to the likelihood of negative events happening as a result of their negative thoughts. Individuals with OC symptoms also rated the likelihood that they would prevent harm by their positive thoughts higher than did individuals without OC symptoms. These results suggest that the role of thought-action fusion in OCs may extend to exaggerated beliefs about thoughts regarding the reduction of harm.     

Decision making styles and progress in occupational decision making

This study provides a reexamination of the role of different decisional strategies in facilitating progress in occupational decision making. Although the assumptions that a rational decision making style is the preferred mode of vocational functioning has been endorsed in a variety of career theories and interventions, there has been conflicting evidence about the validity of this assumption. To examine the role of different decisional approaches in the progress of making an occupational decision, the rational, intuitive, and dependent decision making style scores of 71 undergraduate students were used to predict progress in occupational decision making. The results of the regression analyses failed to provide support for the assumption that a rational style is the most effective in accomplishing this careerrelated task, but indicated strong support for the conclusion that the use of dependent decisional strategies is damaging, particularly in early stages of the decisional process.