title: Are attentional bias and memory bias for negative words causally related?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In cognitive theories of depression, processing biases are assumed to be partly responsible for the onset and maintenance of mood disorders. Despite a wealth of studies examining the relation between depression and individual biases (at the level of attention, interpretation, and memory), little is known about relationships between different biases. The purpose of the present study was to assess if attentional bias is causally related to memory bias.
  
  
  METHODS
  71 participants were randomly assigned to a control (n = 37) or attentional training group (n = 34). The attentional manipulation was followed by an explicit, intentional memory task during which novel neutral, negative, and positive words were presented.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was found that individuals with elevated depression score trained to orient away from negative words did not display a memory bias for negative words (adjectives) whereas similar individuals displayed this memory bias in the control condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Generalization of the findings is limited because of the short study time frame and specific nature of the memory task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that altering attentional bias can influence elaborative processing of emotional material and that this bias could be one of the causes of mood congruent memory in depression.
authors: Jagiellonian University, Poland. atata@apple.phils.uj.edu.pl
authors: Agata
authors: A
authors: Blaut
authors: Borysław
authors: B
authors: Paulewicz
authors: Marta
authors: M
authors: Szastok
authors: Katarzyna
authors: K
authors: Prochwicz
authors: Ernst
authors: E
authors: Koster
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods; D003863:Depression / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*