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Selective Information-Processing in Depressed Children and Adolescents: Is There a Difference in Processing of Self-Referent and Other-Referent Information?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Benedikte Timbremont  and
Caroline Braet
Benedikte Timbremont
Affiliation:
Ghent University.
Caroline Braet*
Affiliation:
Ghent University.
*
Address for correspondence: Caroline Braet, Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Gent, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this study, selective memory-processing of self-referent and other-referent information in depressed children was examined. A control group (N = 50) and a depressed group (N = 22) were given two intentional self-referent encoding tasks, in which participants were presented with positive and negative adjectives. In the first experiment, participants were given self-referent and structural instructions. The second experiment included a self-referent instruction and an other-referent instruction. The encoding tasks were followed by a recall task. The results of the first experiment supported the selective processing hypothesis for self-referent information in depressed children and adolescents. However, the recall ratios of positive and negative information after focusing on self and others in the second experiment revealed that depressed children diverted their attention away from negative self-referent information and displayed memory-processing similar to nondepressed children.

Type
Standard Papers
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , 01 June 2005 , pp. 143 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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