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Lack of Attentional Bias for Emotional Information in Clinically Depressed Children and Adolescents on the Dot Probe Task

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2000

Hamid T. Neshat-Doost
Affiliation:
Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
Ali R. Moradi
Affiliation:
Teacher-Training University, Tehran, Iran
Mohammad R. Taghavi
Affiliation:
Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
William Yule
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Tim Dalgleish
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, U.K.
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Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2000 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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