Skip to main content

Out-of-the-Blue: Depressive Symptoms are Associated with Deficits in Processing Inferential Expectancy-Violations Using a Novel Cognitive Rigidity Task

Cognitive Therapy and Research volume 41, pages 757–776 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Rigid cognition is frequently cited as a plausible maintenance or risk factor for depression. However, most performance-based measures of cognitive rigidity associated with depression offer poor ecological validity, produce mixed findings, and afford little in the way of therapeutic application. In order to establish a more useful and relevant performance-based measure of cognitive rigidity in depression, we developed a novel task that probes a rigidity process using stimuli highly relevant to the level of construal, the thematic content, and the rhetorical mode of depressotypic thinking. The task consists of a set of narrative vignettes that contain an expectancy-violation that is incompatible with an initially-established interpretation. As hypothesized, depressive symptoms were associated with reduced ability to update interpretations. This finding was independent of the valence of the expectancy-violation (i.e., was not merely a negativity bias), and was significant after controlling for basic set-shifting ability, intelligence measures, working memory, and other potential confounds. The novel Contingent Inference Task is a promising approach that may probe a more ecologically and etiologically relevant form of cognitive rigidity in depression than other related performance-based rigidity tasks. This rigidity process may underlie the persistence of biased beliefs in depression, and represent a new therapeutic target.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Notes

  1. See Supplementary Materials for further detail on these covariates.

  2. To increase the likelihood of including participants who were experienced in participating in online research, while maximizing task naivety.

References

  • Ackermann, R., & DeRubeis, R. J. (1991). Is depressive realism real? Clinical Psychology Review, 11(5), 565–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, C. S., & Becker, H. J. (1978). The use of vignettes in survey research. Public Opinion Quarterly, 42(1), 93–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1979). Judgment of contingency in depressed and nondepressed students: Sadder but wiser? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108(4), 441.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • APA. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition, revised (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A., Pastorelli, C., Barbaranelli, C., & Caprara, G. V. (1999). Self-efficacy pathways to childhood depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(2), 258.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bateman, A. W., & Fonagy, P. (2012). Handbook of mentalizing in mental health practice (1st ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. (1st ed.). Madison, CT: Meridian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., & Alford, B. A. (2008). Depression: Causes and treatment (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., & Dozois, D. J. A. (2011). Cognitive therapy:Current status and future directions. Annual Review of Medicine, 62, 397–409.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belsher, G., & Costello, C. G. (1988). Relapse after recovery from unipolar depression: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 104(1), 84.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Belzer, K., & Schneier, F. R. (2004). Comorbidity of anxiety and depressive disorders: Issues in conceptualization, assessment, and treatment. Journal of Psychiatric Practice, 10(5), 296–306.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bickle, J. (2003). Empirical evidence for a narrative concept of self. In G. D. Fireman, T. E. McVay & O. J. Flanagan (Eds.), Narrative and consciousness: Literature, psychology, and the brain (pp. 195–208). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouffard-Bouchard, T. (1990). Influence of self-efficacy on performance in a cognitive task. The Journal of Social Psychology, 130(3), 353–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bridges, K. R., & Harnish, R. J. (2010). Role of irrational beliefs in depression and anxiety: A review. Health, 2(8), 862.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brose, A., Schmiedek, F., Koval, P., & Kuppens, P. (2014). Emotional inertia contributes to depressive symptoms beyond perseverative thinking. Cognition & Emotion, 29(3), 527–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brose, A., Schmiedek, F., Lövdén, M., & Lindenberger, U. (2012). Daily variability in working memory is coupled with negative affect: The role of attention and motivation. Emotion, 12(3), 605.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Boston: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buhrmester, M., Kwang, T., & Gosling, S. D. (2011). Amazon’s mechanical turk a new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality, data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 3–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Channon, S. (1996). Executive dysfunction in depression: The Wisconsin card sorting test. Journal of Affective Disorders, 39(2), 107–114.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Channon, S., & Green, P. (1999). Executive function in depression: The role of performance strategies in aiding depressed and non-depressed participants. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 66(2), 162–171.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, R., Lohr, I., Paul, R., & Boland, R. (2001). Impairments of attention and effort among patients with major affective disorders. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 13(3), 385–395.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Condon, D. M., & Revelle, W. (2014). The International cognitive ability resource: Development and initial validation of a public-domain measure. Intelligence, 43, 52–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, R. N., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2000). Cognitive inflexibility among ruminators and nonruminators. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24(6), 699–711.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Degl’Innocenti, A., Ågren, H., & Bäckman, L. (1998). Executive deficits in major depression. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 97(3), 182–188.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deveney, C. M., & Deldin, P. (2006). A preliminary investigation of cognitive flexibility for emotional information in major depressive disorder and non-psychiatric controls. Emotion, 6(3), 429.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Devins, G. M., Orme, C. M., Costello, C. G., Binik, Y. M., Frizzell, B., Stam, H. J., & Pullin, W. M. (1988). Measuring depressive symptoms in illness populations: Psychometric properties of the center for epidemiologic studies depression (CES-D) scale. Psychology and Health, 2(2), 139–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dozois, D. J. A. (2007). Stability of negative self-structures: A longitudinal comparison of depressed, remitted, and nonpsychiatric controls. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 63(4), 319–338.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Draine, S. (2009). Inquisit. 3.0. Seattle, WA: Millisecond Software, LLC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Egeland, J., Rund, B., Sundet, K., Landrø, N., Asbjørnsen, A., Lund, A., ... Hugdahl, K. (2003). Attention profile in schizophrenia compared with depression: Differential effects of processing speed, selective attention and vigilance. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 108(4), 276–284.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenberg, M. F., Cox, D. N., & Koopman, R. F. (1991). The relationship between self-efficacy and depression in adolescents. Adolescence, 26(102), 361.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, R., Sahakian, B., Herrod, J., Robbins, T., & Paykel, E. (1997). Abnormal response to negative feedback in unipolar depression: Evidence for a diagnosis specific impairment. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 63(1), 74–82.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Farb, N. A. S., Anderson, A. K., Bloch, R. T., & Segal, Z. V. (2011). Mood-linked responses in medial prefrontal cortex predict relapse in patients with recurrent unipolar depression. Biological Psychiatry, 70(4), 366–372.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, W. R. (1984). Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public moral argument. Communications Monographs, 51(1), 1–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, W. R. (1985). The narrative paradigm: An elaboration. Communications Monographs, 52(4), 347–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fossati, P., Amar, G., Raoux, N., Ergis, A. M., & Allilaire, J. F. (1999). Executive functioning and verbal memory in young patients with unipolar depression and schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research, 89(3), 171–187.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frith, U., & Frith, C. D. (2003). Development and neurophysiology of mentalizing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 358(1431), 459–473.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • George, M. S., Mannes, S., & Hoffman, J. E. (1997). Individual differences in inference generation: An ERP analysis. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9(6), 776–787.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Glombiewski, W. R. J. A. (2016). Expectation-focused psychological interventions (EFPI). Verhaltenstherapie, 26

  • Gotlib, I. H., & Hammen, C. L. (2008). Handbook of depression. (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gotlib, I. H., & Joormann, J. (2010). Cognition and depression: Current status and future directions. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 6, 285.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Graesser, A., Golding, J. M., & Long, D. L. (1996). Narrative representation and comprehension. Handbook of Reading Research, 2, 171–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, M. M., Thase, M. E., & Sweeney, J. A. (2001). Cognitive disturbance in outpatient depressed younger adults: Evidence of modest impairment. Biological Psychiatry, 50(1), 35.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, T., & Bluck, S. (2000). Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 126(5), 748.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haringsma, R., Engels, G., Beekman, A., & Spinhoven, P. (2004). The criterion validity of the center for epidemiological studies depression scale (CES-D) in a sample of self-referred elders with depressive symptomatology. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 19(6), 558–563.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heaton, R. K. (1981). A manual for the Wisconsin card sorting test. Odessa: Western Psychological Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollon, S. D., & Dimidjian, S. (2008). Cognitive and behavioral treatment of depression. In I. H. Gotlib & C. L. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of depression (2nd ed., pp. 586–603). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollon, S. D., & Kriss, M. R. (1984). Cognitive factors in clinical research and practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 4(1), 35–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hollon, S. D., Thase, M. E., & Markowitz, J. C. (2002). Treatment and prevention of depression. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 3(2), 39–77.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, L. M., & Vitkus, J. (1986). The interpersonal basis of psychiatric symptoms. Clinical Psychology Review, 6(5), 443–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, G. S. (1991). Culture tales: A narrative approach to thinking, cross-cultural psychology, and psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 46(3), 187.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inoue, Y., Yamada, K., & Kanba, S. (2006). Deficit in theory of mind is a risk for relapse of major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 95(1), 125–127.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jaeggi, S. M., Studer-Luethi, B., Buschkuehl, M., Su, Y.-F., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2010). The relationship between n-back performance and matrix reasoning—Implications for training and transfer. Intelligence, 38(6), 625–635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joormann, J., Dkane, M., & Gotlib, I. H. (2006). Adaptive and maladaptive components of rumination? Diagnostic specificity and relation to depressive biases. Behavior Therapy, 37(3), 269–280.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Judd, L. L. (1997). The clinical course of unipolar major depressive disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54(11), 989–991.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1992). A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory. Psychological Review, 99, 122–149.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., & Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 865–878.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Koretz, D., Merikangas, K. R., ... Wang, P. S. (2003). The epidemiology of major depressive disorder. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 289(23), 3095–3105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 617–627.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Korn, C., Sharot, T., Walter, H., Heekeren, H., & Dolan, R. (2014). Depression is related to an absence of optimistically biased belief updating about future life events. Psychological Medicine, 44(3), 579–592.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koval, P., Kuppens, P., Allen, N. B., & Sheeber, L. (2012). Getting stuck in depression: The roles of rumination and emotional inertia. Cognition & Emotion, 26(8), 1412–1427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuppens, P., Allen, N. B., & Sheeber, L. B. (2010). Emotional inertia and psychological maladjustment. Psychological Science, 21(7), 984–991.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, M. F. (1981). Cognitive distortion and cognitive errors in depressed psychiatric and low back pain patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49(4), 517.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lemelin, S., Baruch, P., Vincent, A., Everett, J., & Vincent, P. (1997). Distractibility and processing resource deficit in major depression. Evidence for two deficient attentional processing models. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 185(9), 542–548.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lopes, R. T., Gonçalves, M. M., Machado, P. P., Sinai, D., Bento, T., & Salgado, J. (2014). Narrative therapy vs. cognitive-behavioral therapy for moderate depression: Empirical evidence from a controlled clinical trial. Psychotherapy Research, 24(6), 662–674.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maciejewski, P. K., Prigerson, H. G., & Mazure, C. M. (2000). Self-efficacy as a mediator between stressful life events and depressive symptoms: Differences based on history of prior depression. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 176(4), 373–378.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mackinnon, A., Jorm, A. F., Christensen, H., Korten, A. E., Jacomb, P. A., & Rodgers, B. (1999). A short form of the positive and negative affect schedule: Evaluation of factorial validity and invariance across demographic variables in a community sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 27(3), 405–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mar, R. A., Spreng, R. N., & DeYoung, C. G. (2013). How to produce personality neuroscience research with high statistical power and low additional cost. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 13(3), 674–685.

  • Martin, D. J., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (1984). Illusion of control for self and others in depressed and nondepressed college students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(1), 125.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. Annual Review Clinic Psychology, 1, 167–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meiran, N., Diamond, G. M., Toder, D., & Nemets, B. (2011). Cognitive rigidity in unipolar depression and obsessive compulsive disorder: Examination of task switching, Stroop, working memory updating and post-conflict adaptation. Psychiatry Research, 185(1), 149–156.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, P. J. (1995). Personal storytelling in everyday life: Social and cultural perspectives. In R. S. Wyer (Ed.), Knowledge and memory: The real story: Advances in social cognition, Vol. 8. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, M. T., & Fresco, D. M. (2012). Depressive realism: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 32(6), 496–509.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mor, N., & Winquist, J. (2002). Self-focused attention and negative affect: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128(4), 638.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, T. I., Leon, A. C., Keller, M. B., Solomon, D. A., Endicott, J., Coryell, W., ... Maser, J D. (1999). Recurrence after recovery from major depressive disorder during 15 years of observational follow-up. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156(7), 1000–1006.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2000). The role of rumination in depressive disorders and mixed anxiety/depressive symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109(3), 504.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Orme, J. G., Reis, J., & Herz, E. J. (1986). Factorial and discriminant validity of the center for epidemiological studies depression (CES-D) scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 42(1), 28–33.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Owens, M., & Derakshan, N. (2013). The effects of dysphoria and rumination on cognitive flexibility and task selection. Acta Psychologica, 142(3), 323–331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, C. J., Paton, B., Enticott, P. G., & Hohwy, J. (2015). ‘Subtypes’ in the presentation of autistic traits in the general adult population. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(5), 1291–1301.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parkinson, B., & Manstead, A. S. (1993). Making sense of emotion in stories and social life. Cognition & Emotion, 7(3–4), 295–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payne, M. (2006). Narrative therapy (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelosi, L., Slade, T., Blumhardt, L., & Sharma, V. (2000). Working memory dysfunction in major depression: An event-related potential study. Clinical Neurophysiology, 11(9), 1531–1543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pennebaker, J. W., & Seagal, J. D. (1999). Forming a story: The health benefits of narrative. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55(10), 1243–1254.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1(04), 515–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radloff, L. S. (1991). The use of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20(2), 149–166.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ragland, J. D., Turetsky, B. I., Gur, R. C., Gunning-Dixon, F., Turner, T., Schroeder, L., ... Gur, R. E. (2002). Working memory for complex figures: An fMRI comparison of letter and fractal n-back tasks. Neuropsychology, 16(3), 370.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ravnkilde, B., Videbech, P., Clemmensen, K., Egander, A., Rasmussen, N. A., & Rosenberg, R. (2002). Cognitive deficits in major depression. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 43(3), 239–251.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rief, W., Glombiewski, J. A., Gollwitzer, M., Schubö, A., Schwarting, R., & Thorwart, A. (2015). Expectancies as core features of mental disorders. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 28(5), 378–385.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, R. E. (1980). Reliability of the CES-D scale in different ethnic contexts. Psychiatry Research, 2(2), 125–134.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, M. D., & Clore, G. L. (2001). Simulation, scenarios, and emotional appraisal: Testing the convergence of real and imagined reactions to emotional stimuli. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(11), 1520–1532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, M. A., Kasai, K., Koji, M., Fukuda, R., Iwanami, A., Nakagome, K., ... Kato, N. (2004). Executive and prefrontal dysfunction in unipolar depression: A review of neuropsychological and imaging evidence. Neuroscience Research, 50(1), 1–11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, E., & Ebmeier, K. (2006). Pattern of impaired working memory during major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 90(2), 149–161.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg, J., & Hindash, A. C. (2015). Emerging evidence for emotion context insensitivity in depression. Current Opinion in Psychology, 4, 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rude, S. S., Wenzlaff, R. M., Gibbs, B., Vane, J., & Whitney, T. (2002). Negative processing biases predict subsequent depressive symptoms. Cognition & Emotion, 16(3), 423–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995). Generalized self-efficacy scale. In J. Weinam, S. Wright, & M. JohnstonMeasures in Health Psychology: A User’s Portfolio. Causal and Control Beliefs, , (pp, 35–37).Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, Z. V., & Swallow, S. R. (1994). Cognitive assessment of unipolar depression: Measuring products, processes and structures. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32(1), 147–158.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, D. N., Chandler, J., & Mueller, P. A. (2013). Using mechanical turk to study clinical populations. Clinical Psychological Science, 1(2), 213–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siegle, G. J., Steinhauer, S. R., Thase, M. E., Stenger, V. A., & Carter, C. S. (2002). Can’t shake that feeling: Event-related fMRI assessment of sustained amygdala activity in response to emotional information in depressed individuals. Biological Psychiatry, 51(9), 693–707.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Slade, T., Johnston, A., Oakley Browne, M. A., Andrews, G., & Whiteford, H. (2009). 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing: Methods and key findings. Australian Psychiatry, 43(7), 594–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L. M. (2013). Rumination, negative affect and working memory: Does rumination moderate the relationship between negative affect induction and working memory? (PhD Thesis). Ann Arbor: Seattle Pacific University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snyder, H. R. (2013). Major depressive disorder is associated with broad impairments on neuropsychological measures of executive function: A meta-analysis and review. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stansbury, J. P., Ried, L. D., & Velozo, C. A. (2006). Unidimensionality and bandwidth in the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES–D) scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 86(1), 10–22.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steen, F. F. (2005). The paradox of narrative thinking. Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology, 3(1), 87–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sweeney, J. A., Kmiec, J. A., & Kupfer, D. J. (2000). Neuropsychologic impairments in bipolar and unipolar mood disorders on the CANTAB neurocognitive battery. Biological Psychiatry, 48(7), 674–684.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Teasdale, J. D. (1993). Emotion and two kinds of meaning: Cognitive therapy and applied cognitive science. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31(4), 339–354.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tellegen, A., Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1999). On the dimensional and hierarchical structure of affect. Psychological Science, 10(4), 297–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trabasso, T. (2005). The role of causal reasoning in understanding narratives. In T. Trabasso, J. Sabatini, D. W. Massaro, & R. C. Calfee (Eds.), From orthography to pedagogy: Essays in honor of Richard L. Venezky (pp. 81–106). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: A psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27(3), 247–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, M. (1998). The literary mind: The origins of thought and language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vázquez, C. (1987). Judgment of contingency: Cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(2), 419.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vromans, L. P., & Schweitzer, R. D. (2011). Narrative therapy for adults with major depressive disorder: Improved symptom and interpersonal outcomes. Psychotherapy Research, 21(1), 4–15.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watkins, E. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 163.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1992). Affects separable and inseparable: On the hierarchical arrangement of the negative affects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(3), 489.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., & Tellegen, A. (1985). Toward a consensual structure of mood. Psychological bulletin, 98(2), 219.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wechsler, D. (2008). Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS–IV). (4th ed.). San Antonio, TX: NCS Pearson.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: WW Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitmer, A. J., & Banich, M. T. (2007). Inhibition versus switching deficits in different forms of rumination. Psychological Science, 18(6), 546–553.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whitmer, A. J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2012). An attentional scope model of rumination. Psychological Bulletin, 139(5), 1036.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • WHO. (2015). Depression. Fact sheet N 369/October 2015.

  • Williams, J. M. G., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., Herman, D., Raes, F., Watkins, E., & Dalgleish, T. (2007). Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 122–148. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.122.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Young, J. E., Weinberger, A. D., & Beck, A. T. (2001). Cognitive therapy for depression. In D. H. Barlow (Ed.), Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment manual (3rd ed., pp. 264–308). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zakzanis, K. K., Leach, L., & Kaplan, E. (1998). On the nature and pattern of neurocognitive function in major depressive disorder. Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology, 11(3), 111–119.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, M., Chelminski, I., & McDermut, W. (2002). Major depressive disorder and axis I diagnostic comorbidity. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 63(3), 187–193.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mark Yates and Melissa Latham for reading earlier versions of the manuscript.

Funding

Funding was provided by Department of Human Services, State Government of Victoria (Grant No. ID0EEOAE1654).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Redmond Barry Building, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Paul Liknaitzky & Luke D. Smillie

  2. Department of Psychology, The University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Nicholas B. Allen

Authors
  1. Paul Liknaitzky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Luke D. Smillie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nicholas B. Allen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Liknaitzky.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Paul Liknaitzky, Luke D. Smillie, and Nicholas B. Allen declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Animal Rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 49 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liknaitzky, P., Smillie, L.D. & Allen, N.B. Out-of-the-Blue: Depressive Symptoms are Associated with Deficits in Processing Inferential Expectancy-Violations Using a Novel Cognitive Rigidity Task. Cogn Ther Res 41, 757–776 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9853-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9853-x

Keywords

  • Depression
  • Cognitive rigidity
  • Inference
  • Prediction-error
  • Expectancy-violation