Biased information processing as a vulnerability factor for depression

Abstract

Individuals who become clinically depressed once are more likely than are their never-depressed counterparts to experience a future episode of depression. This finding suggests that there is a stable vulnerability factor, or set of factors, that predisposes some individuals to become depressed repeatedly over the course of their lives. Cognitive theories of depression (e.g., Beck, 1967, Beck, 1976) contend that negatively biased information processing may constitute such a vulnerability factor for the onset and/or maintenance of depression. In this paper, we review research using information-processing paradigms that examines depression-associated biases in attention to, and memory for, negative information. We conclude that there is strong evidence that depression is associated with concurrent information-processing biases. Moreover, based on the results of recent priming studies, we argue further that some aspects of cognitive functioning, particularly those involving memory processes, may indeed represent a vulnerability factor for depression. We conclude this paper with a discussion of implications of this line of research for the prevention and treatment of depression.