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Lack of Attentional Bias for Emotional Information in Clinically Depressed Children and Adolescents on the Dot Probe Task
Author(s) -
NeshatDoost Hamid T.,
Moradi Ali R.,
Taghavi Mohammad R.,
Yule William,
Dalgleish Tim
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00620
Subject(s) - psychology , attentional bias , anxiety , cognition , cognitive bias , context (archaeology) , developmental psychology , depression (economics) , task (project management) , cognitive psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , paleontology , macroeconomics , management , economics , biology
The present study utilised a cognitive paradigm to investigate attentional biases in clinically depressed children and adolescents. Two groups of children and adolescents—clinically depressed ( N = 19) and normal controls ( N = 26)—were asked to complete a computerised version of the attentional dot probe paradigm similar to that used by MacLeod, Mathews, and Tata (1986). Results provided no support for an attentional bias, either toward depression‐related words or threat words, in the depressed group. This finding is discussed in the context of cognitive theories of anxiety and depression.