Event-based prospective memory in depression: The impact of cue focality

Abstract

This study is the first to compare event-based prospective memory performance in individuals with depression and healthy controls. The degree to which self-initiated processing is required to perform the prospective memory task was varied. Twenty-eight individuals with depression and 32 healthy controls worked on a computerized prospective memory task. Prospective cues were either presented focally or nonfocally to the ongoing activity. Collapsing data across both conditions, controls outperformed individuals with depression in the prospective memory task. Overall, participants showed a poorer prospective memory performance in the nonfocal condition that required self-initiated processing to a higher degree than the focal condition. Importantly, as revealed by a group by task condition interaction, groups did not differ in the focal condition, whereas, controls outperformed individuals with depression in the nonfocal condition. The results are in line with the multiprocess framework of event-based prospective remembering and the cognitive-initiative account of depression-related cognitive deficits. This study is the first to compare event-based prospective memory performance in individuals with depression and healthy controls. The degree to which self-initiated processing is required to perform the prospective memory task was varied. Twenty-eight individuals with depression and 32 healthy controls worked on a computerized prospective memory task. Prospective cues were either presented focally or nonfocally to the ongoing activity. Collapsing data across both conditions, controls outperformed individuals with depression in the prospective memory task. Overall, participants showed a poorer prospective memory performance in the nonfocal condition that required self-initiated processing to a higher degree than the focal condition. Importantly, as revealed by a group by task condition interaction, groups did not differ in the focal condition, whereas, controls outperformed individuals with depression in the nonfocal condition. The results are in line with the multiprocess framework of event-based prospective remembering and the cognitive-initiative account of depression-related cognitive deficits.Word count: 149

Is prospective memory related to depression and anxiety? A hierarchical MPT modelling approach

“…Event-based PM may be impaired in clinically depressed individuals, but not in nonclinical samples. Supporting this idea, only Altgassen et al (2009) who used a clinically depressed sample found group differences in nonfocal event-based PM compared with normal controls. However, the MPT model requires a large number of observations to produce reliable parameter estimates.…”

“…Accordingly, a relationship between working memory and PM performance has been shown for nonfocal tasks only (e.g., Brewer et al, 2010;Rose, Rendell, McDaniel, Aberle, & Kliegel, 2010). Thus, the results obtained by Altgassen et al (2009) suggest that depression-related PM impairments are more likely when the task requires relatively high amounts of cognitive resources as is the case with nonfocal tasks and multiple targets. However, Kliegel and Jäger (2006) also used a nonfocal PM task with multiple targets.…”

“…Our task was an event-based PM task. Depression has been shown to influence time-based PM (e.g., Kliegel & Jäger, 2006), but event-based PM only with a nonfocal task and multiple targets (Altgassen et al, 2009). Because the negative relationship between depression and time-based PM is assumed to be due to a lack of self-initiation (Kliegel et al, 2005;Rude et al, 1999), performance on nonfocal event-based PM tasks (which also require self-initiated processes) may be more vulnerable to effects of depression than focal tasks (cf.…”

“…Only two studies that examined the relationship between depression and event-based PM used multiple targets. Altgassen, Kliegel, and Martin (2009) used tasks with four PM trials, each with a different PM target. They found that event-based PM performance was impaired in a clinically depressed group as compared with a control group for nonfocal PM tasks but not for focal PM tasks.…”

Prospective memory and future event simulation in individuals with alcohol dependence

“…There is reportedly a high co-morbidity between substance abuse and various psychiatric conditions (Regier et al, 1990). This is particularly important in the study of PM, as research has revealed PM impairments in samples of individuals with depression (Rude, Hertel, Jarrold, Covich & Hedlund, 1999;Altgassen, Kliegel & Martin, 2009), and schizophrenia Henry, Rendell, Kliegel & Altgassen, 2007). Four studies included some measure of psychopathology, either in the form of the HADS Heffernan et al, 2010;Bartholomew et al, 2010) or the Symptom Checklist-90…”