Testing the Cognitive Vulnerability Hypothesis in Previously Depressed Women: Effects of a Sad Mood Induction on Attention and Memory Biases

Researchers have documented biases in attention and memory in depressed and dysphoric individuals. Several studies have examined these biases among previously depressed individuals, and while there is evidence that attention and memory biases persist in remitted depression, the findings are not consistent. One limitation of previous research is that few studies have used a stress or negative mood induction (MI) to activate the cognitive vulnerability posited to underlie attention and memory biases. The present study used a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm to assess previously depressed participants’ attention biases for positive and negative words before and after a sad MI. Memory biases were assessed using tests of incidental recognition. Only participants who were successfully mood-induced were included in the analyses. Unlike previously depressed participants, never depressed participants exhibited attention and memory biases that favored positive over neutral words, both before and after the sad MI, suggesting a protective bias that is maintained in a sad mood state. After the sad MI, previously depressed participants had smaller attention biases for positive words and smaller memory biases for negative words compared to never depressed participants. The findings are generally supportive of the notion that cognitive vulnerability is maintained to some extent in remitted depression and can be influenced by a sad mood.