title: When mental inflexibility facilitates executive control: beneficial side effects of ruminative tendencies on goal maintenance.
abstract: Although previous research suggests that depressive ruminators tend to become stuck in a particular mind-set, this mental inflexibility may not always be disadvantageous; in some cases, it may facilitate active maintenance of a single task goal in the face of distraction. To evaluate this hypothesis, we tested 98 college students, who differed in ruminative tendencies and dysphoria levels, on two executive-control tasks. One task emphasized fast-paced shifting between goals (letter naming), and one emphasized active goal maintenance (modified Stroop). Higher ruminative tendencies predicted more errors on the goal-shifting task but fewer errors on the goal-maintenance task; these results demonstrated that ruminative tendencies have both detrimental and beneficial effects. Moreover, although ruminative tendencies and dysphoria levels were moderately correlated (r = .42), higher dysphoria levels predicted more errors on the goal-maintenance task; this finding indicates that rumination and dysphoria can have opposing effects on executive control. Overall, these results suggest that depressive rumination reflects a trait associated with more stability (goal maintenance) than flexibility (goal shifting).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0345, USA. lee.altamirano@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Lee J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Altamirano
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Miyake
authors.forename: Anson J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Whitmer
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012193:Reversal Learning; D057190:Stroop Test; D013694:Temperament; D013850:Thinking
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