Relationships between attention and interpretation processes: New advances for the detection and modification of cognitive biases involved in depression

Depression is characterized by exaggerated attention to negative information and tendencies to interpret ambiguous situations as negative (e.g., Gotlib & Joormann, 2010). Importantly, these biases are interdependent. Recent studies have shown that depressed gaze patterns predict higher tendencies to interpret information as negative (Everaert et al., in press). These impaired processes are thought to be causally related to depression vulnerability. In our study, we aimed to clarify the role of depressive attention patterns in interpretation processes, in order to develop procedures to detect and modify these cognitive impairments. The study was conducted with a subclinical sample (n = 50). Depressive symptoms were evaluated with the BDI-II (Beck et al., 1996). Participants completed two sessions in which attention and interpretation were evaluated using a scramble sentence task (SST). The SST comprised 40 scrambled sentences (e.g., "looks the future bright very dismal"). Participants had to form grammatically correct sentences that could be resolved in positive or negative ways, while gaze patterns were recorded through a TOBII TX300 eye-tracker system. In Session 1 we analyzed relationships between attention and tendencies to interpret ambiguously emotional information. In Session 2, participants were instructed to unscramble sentences in a positive way to examine attentional processes subserving the ability to form positive meanings. Through this design we aimed to clarify: a) differences between the tendency and the ability to form positive meanings; b) the role of attention in each type of interpretation process; and c) the effects of depressive symptoms in attention-interpretation relationships. Results on the role of depression in attention patterns linked to interpretation impairments will be presented in the conference. An adequate identification and modification of these inter-related processes will be crucial given their role on emotional disturbances. Thus, new lines of cognitive bias modification will be proposed based on our findings.

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