Modelling the Effect of Depression on Working Memory
Year: 2018
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Individuals with depression are prone to engaging in rumination, a process in which attention turns inwards to narrowlyfocused, negative patterns of thought, at the cost of attending to a task. Other core deficits associated with depression are weaker inhibition of information that is no longer relevant, and a negative perceptual bias. Here, we present a computational cognitive model that uses these mechanisms to explain performance on an n-back task in which the stimuli are faces with different emotional expressions, and in which depressed participants exhibit specific impairments. These impairments are explained by assuming that depressed participants selectively elaborate on sad items as they are removed from working memory, and that they have a perceptual bias towards sad faces. In this way, by specifying a mechanism by which performance impairments come about, the model helps to provide a deeper understanding of the cognitive processes underlying behaviour.
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2886876386