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Attentional biases in ruminators and worriers

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether attentional biases typically associated with depression and anxiety already exist on a sub-clinical level. A transdiagnostic characteristic, both affective disorders have in common at a sub-clinical level, is persistent negative thinking (PNT), called rumination in depression and worrying in anxiety disorders. We investigated the association between these two types of PNT and attentional biases, using two different versions of the exogenous cueing tasks (ECT) in two different experiments. In Experiment 1, the cues of the ECT were negative and positive personality traits. This allowed us to investigate whether high-ruminators (N = 29), analogous to depressed patients, have difficulties to disengage attention from negative personality traits, as compared to low-ruminators (N = 40). In Experiment 2, the cues of the ECT were negative words related to themes participants frequently worry about versus positive words. This was done to investigate whether high-worriers (N = 26), analogous to anxious persons, have a strong tendency to automatically direct attention toward worry-related information, as compared to low-worriers (N = 27). The results of Experiment 1 showed that high-ruminators have difficulties to disengage their attention from negative personality traits. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that there were no attentional biases for high-worriers. These results show that the attentional bias typically associated with depression is already present at a sub-clinical level, whereas this seems not to be the case for the attentional bias typically associated with anxiety.

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Notes

  1. Correlation between raw RRS and PSWQ scores: r = .644, p < .001, overlap between groups, divided based on median split: 50 % (31 out of 62 students score low on both RRS and PSWQ or high on both RRS and PSWQ).

  2. None of the participants did not indicate any worry-theme as being relevant; two participants indicated that all of the worry-themes were personally relevant for them. On average, respondents indicated that two out of the four worry-themes were personally relevant to them.

  3. Correlation between raw RRS and PSWQ scores: r = .704, p < .001, overlap between groups, divided based on median split: 53 % (28 out of 53 students score low on both RRS and PSWQ or high on both RRS and PSWQ).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mr. Thomas Kessels for language help and proofreading the article. The first author, Mieke Beckwé, is funded by the research counsel of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (project 1582 BOF). There is no interest to be declared by the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Mieke Beckwé & Natacha Deroost

Authors
  1. Mieke Beckwé
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  2. Natacha Deroost
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mieke Beckwé.

Appendix

Appendix

English translation of the personality traits and worry words used in respectively Experiment 1 and 2

 

Negative words

Positive words

Personality traits

Cowardly

Brutal

Happy

Honest

Asocial

Rude

Hopeful

Positive

Irritating

Frustrated

Sympathetic

Friendly

False

Jealous

Smart

Sincere

Unhealthy

Annoying

Polite

Creative

Suspicious

Unreliable

Relax

Enthusiastic

Cruel

Complaining

Alert

Nice

Lonely

Loveless

Energetic

Lively

Depressed

Doubtful

Helpful

Optimistic

Bossy

Hateful

Healthy

Funny

Liar

Selfish

Cheerful

Pleasant

Unpleasant

Pessimistic

Understanding

Righteous

Mean

Hostile

Active

Social

Aggressive

Unhappy

Thankful

Original

Indecisive

Intolerant

Reliable

Merry

Worry words

Fear of failure a

Relationships a

Cat

Television

Anxiety

Separation

Room

Consistent

Exams

Jealous

Entertaining

Juice

Nervous

Lonely

Objectively

Exhibition

Incompetent

Unreliable

Sewing machine

Sophisticated

Losses a

Health a

Pants

Direct

Grief

Cancer

Decent

Adventurous

Funeral

Illness

Firm

Pen

Sorry

Unhealthy

  

Depressed

Unattractive

  
  1. aNegative words are arranged according to worry-theme

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Beckwé, M., Deroost, N. Attentional biases in ruminators and worriers. Psychological Research 80, 952–962 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0703-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0703-8

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