Event-based prospective memory deficits in individuals with high depressive symptomatology: Problems controlling attentional resources?

Depression has been found to be related to neurocognitive deficits in areas important to successful prospective memory (PM) performance, including executive function, attention, and retrospective memory. However, research specific to depression and PM has produced a mixed pattern of results. The current study further examined the task conditions in which event-based PM deficits may emerge in individuals with high depressive symptomatology (HDS) relative to individuals with low depressive symptomatology (LDS) and the capacity of HDS individuals to allocate attentional resources to event-based PM tasks. Sixty-four participants (32 HDS, 32 LDS) were required to make a PM response when target words were presented during an ongoing lexical decision task. When the importance of the ongoing task was emphasized, response time costs to the ongoing task, and PM accuracy, did not differ between the HDS and LDS groups. This finding is consistent with previous research demonstrating that event-based PM task accuracy is not always impaired by depression, even when the PM task is resource demanding. When the importance of the PM task was emphasized, costs to the ongoing task further increased for both groups, indicating an increased allocation of attentional resources to the PM task. Crucially, while a corresponding improvement in PM accuracy was observed in the LDS group when the importance of the PM task was emphasized, this was not true for the HDS group. The lack of improved PM accuracy in the HDS group compared with the LDS group despite evidence of increased cognitive resources allocated to PM tasks may have been due to inefficiency in the application of the allocated attention, a dimension likely related to executive function difficulties in depression. Qualitatively different resource allocation patterns may underlie PM monitoring in HDS versus LDS individuals.

[1]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods , 1992 .

[2]  H. Kranzler,et al.  The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): validation of a screening instrument for use in medical settings. , 1995, Journal of studies on alcohol.

[3]  C. Chiros,et al.  Factor structure and psychometric characteristics of the beck depression inventory-II , 1997 .

[4]  H. Veiel,et al.  A preliminary profile of neuropsychological deficits associated with major depression. , 1997, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[5]  R. Kawashima,et al.  Participation of the prefrontal cortices in prospective memory: evidence from a PET study in humans , 1998, Neuroscience Letters.

[6]  P. Gollwitzer.  Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans. , 1999 .

[7]  S. Rude,et al.  Depression-related Impairments in Prospective Memory , 1999 .

[8]  B. Rosenthal,et al.  Prevalence of Psychological Symptoms Among Undergraduate Students in an Ethnically Diverse Urban Public College , 2000, Journal of American college health : J of ACH.

[9]  J Duncan,et al.  Rehabilitation of executive functioning: An experimental–clinical validation of Goal Management Training , 2000, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[10]  P. Hertel.  The Cognitive-Initiative Account of Depression-Related Impairments in Memory , 2000 .

[11]  P. Lewinsohn,et al.  Clinical implications of "subthreshold" depressive symptoms. , 2000, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[12]  C. Savage,et al.  The neural network basis for abnormalities of attention and executive function in major depressive disorder: implications for application of the medical disease model to psychiatric disorders. , 2002, Harvard review of psychiatry.

[13]  M. Coltheart,et al.  358,534 nonwords: The ARC Nonword Database , 2002, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[14]  Melissa J. Guynn,et al.  A two‐process model of strategic monitoring in event‐based prospective memory: Activation/retrieval mode and checking , 2003 .

[15]  J. Henry,et al.  The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS): normative data and latent structure in a large non-clinical sample. , 2003, The British journal of clinical psychology.

[16]  A. Osman,et al.  Reliability and validity of the Beck depression inventory--II with adolescent psychiatric inpatients. , 2004, Psychological assessment.

[17]  Jonathan W. Roberti,et al.  Factor structure, concurrent validity, and internal consistency of the beck depression inventory—second edition in a sample of college students , 2004, Depression and anxiety.

[18]  U. Bayen,et al.  A multinomial model of event-based prospective memory. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[19]  Scott A Langenecker,et al.  Face Emotion Perception and Executive Functioning Deficits in Depression , 2005, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[20]  M. McDaniel,et al.  Prospective Memory , 2005 .

[21]  J. Henry,et al.  A Meta-Analytic Review of Verbal Fluency Deficits in Depression , 2005, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[22]  R. West,et al.  Disruptions of preparatory attention contribute to failures of prospective memory , 2005, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[23]  Robert K. Heaton,et al.  Prospective Memory in HIV-1 Infection , 2006, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[24]  E. Gordon,et al.  Abnormal asymmetry of N200 and P300 event-related potentials in subclinical depression. , 2006, Journal of affective disorders.

[25]  J. Leppänen.  Emotional information processing in mood disorders: a review of behavioral and neuroimaging findings , 2006, Current opinion in psychiatry.

[26]  J. Henry,et al.  Traumatic brain injury and prospective memory: Influence of task complexity , 2007, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[27]  Shayne Loft,et al.  An investigation into the resource requirements of event-based prospective memory , 2007, Memory & cognition.

[28]  R. R. Hunt,et al.  The cost of event-based prospective memory: salient target events. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[29]  Avram J Holmes,et al.  Task feedback effects on conflict monitoring and executive control: relationship to subclinical measures of depression. , 2007, Emotion.

[30]  S. Cumming,et al.  The relationship between cognitive function and clinical and functional outcomes in major depressive disorder , 2008, Psychological Medicine.

[31]  Anna-Lisa Cohen,et al.  Number of cues influences the cost of remembering to remember , 2008, Memory & cognition.

[32]  M. Furey,et al.  Brain structural and functional abnormalities in mood disorders: implications for neurocircuitry models of depression , 2008, Brain Structure and Function.

[33]  J. Ellis,et al.  Ten years on: realizing delayed intentions , 2008 .

[34]  Iroise Dumontheil,et al.  On the role of rostral prefrontal cortex (area 10) in prospective memory , 2008 .

[35]  B. Christensen,et al.  Measuring premorbid IQ in traumatic brain injury: An examination of the validity of the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR) , 2008, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[36]  L. Bäckman,et al.  Differential effects of depressive symptoms on prospective and retrospective memory in old age , 2008, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[37]  Shayne Loft,et al.  Is task interference in event-based prospective memory dependent on cue presentation? , 2008, Memory & cognition.

[38]  R. West.  The cognitive neuroscience of prospective memory. , 2008 .

[39]  Mike Martin,et al.  Event-based prospective memory in depression: The impact of cue focality , 2009 .

[40]  B. Sahakian,et al.  Neurocognitive mechanisms in depression: implications for treatment. , 2009, Annual review of neuroscience.

[41]  I. Gotlib,et al.  Cognition and depression: current status and future directions. , 2010, Annual review of clinical psychology.

[42]  M. Weinborn,et al.  Prospective memory deficits in Ecstasy users: Effects of longer ongoing task delay interval , 2011, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[43]  E. Walker,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[44]  P. Burgess,et al.  Functional neuroimaging studies of prospective memory: What have we learnt so far? , 2011, Neuropsychologia.

[45]  Jerry L. Grenard,et al.  Depression and Medication Adherence in the Treatment of Chronic Diseases in the United States: A Meta-Analysis , 2011, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[46]  J. Henry,et al.  The influence of emotional target cues on prospective memory performance in depression , 2011, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[47]  A. Kemp,et al.  The impact of depression heterogeneity on inhibitory control , 2012, The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry.

[48]  Shayne Loft,et al.  Enhanced recognition of words previously presented in a task with nonfocal prospective memory requirements , 2012, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[49]  G. Dichter,et al.  Neural mechanisms of subclinical depressive symptoms in women: a pilot functional brain imaging study , 2012, BMC Psychiatry.

[50]  M. Kliegel,et al.  Positive effects of subclinical depression in prospective memory and ongoing tasks in young and old adults , 2012, Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition.

[51]  Janet B W Williams,et al.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , 2013 .

[52]  M. Maybery,et al.  Patterns of Prospective Memory Impairment Among Individuals with Depression: The Influence of Cue Type and Delay Interval , 2013, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[53]  J. Rusted,et al.  Prospective memory in Alzheimer-type dementia: Exploring prospective memory performance in an age-stratified sample , 2013, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[54]  Renlai Zhou,et al.  Deficits in cue detection underlie event-based prospective memory impairment in major depression: an eye tracking study , 2013, Psychiatry Research.