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Comparing Influence of Depression and Negative Affect on Decision Making

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Abstract

The current study aimed to explore differential value-based decision-making patterns across three groups—individuals diagnosed with mild-to-moderate depression, a healthy matched control group, and a negative mood induction group. In the current study, drug- and therapy-naïve individuals diagnosed with first episode of mild-to-moderate depression (n = 40), healthy individuals matched on age, gender, and education (n = 40), and healthy individuals with no current, past, or family history of any psychiatric conditions in a negative mood-induced state (n = 40) were administered the IOWA Gambling Task (IGT) and the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). Results indicated that individuals with depression showed heightened punishment sensitivity on both the IGT and the BART (p < 0.05 on the BART and p < 0.05 on the IGT), and performed poorly on the IGT indicating poor and slow learning (p < 0.01). A similar, less severe, pattern was observed in the negative mood induction group. Individuals with mild-to-moderate depression performed poorly on tasks of value-based decision making. The significance of process factors in decision making, such as reward and punishment sensitivity, valuation of outcomes and learning, was highlighted in this study. The study also demonstrated how a negative affective state, without the other clusters of depressive symptomatology, can also lead to a less severe, but impaired decision making.

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Data Availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

IGT:

Iowa Gambling Task

PEBL:

Psychology Experiment Building Software

BART:

Balloon Analog Risk Task

LTC Index:

Learning of long-term consequences index

IFL Bias:

Bias for infrequent loss index

BDI-II:

Beck’s Depression Inventory-II

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of Cognitive, Affect and Behaviour Laboratory, Department of Psychology, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), India, for resources for participant assessment. We also wish to thank Ms. Ritisikita Mishra and Ms. Ritirikta Mishra for technical support. We also thank our participants for their valued contribution to the study.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India

    Harishankar Moosath & Madhavi Rangaswamy

Authors
  1. Harishankar Moosath
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  2. Madhavi Rangaswamy
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Both the authors have contributed equally to the planning, execution, data analysis, and review of the manuscript. Data collection was primarily conducted by the first author.

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Correspondence to Harishankar Moosath.

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The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India.

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Moosath, H., Rangaswamy, M. Comparing Influence of Depression and Negative Affect on Decision Making. Psychol Stud 68, 310–318 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-023-00719-5

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