The Depressive Attributions Questionnaire (DAQ): Development of a Short Self-Report Measure of Depressogenic Attributions

A depressogenic attributional style, i.e., internal, stable and global causal interpretations of negative events, is a stable vulnerability factor for depression. Current measures of pessimistic attributional style can be time-consuming to complete, and some are designed for specific use with student populations. We developed and validated a new short questionnaire suitable for the measurement of depressogenic attributions in clinical settings, the Depressive Attributions Questionnaire (DAQ). The 16-item DAQ, and measures of depression and related cognitive concepts were completed by three samples of depressed patients and matched controls, or depressed and non-depressed participants who had been exposed to a recent uncontrollable stressful life event (total N = 375). The DAQ had high (i) internal reliability, (ii) test-retest reliability, (iii) convergent, discriminant and construct validity. It predicted a diagnosis of major depression at 6months after an uncontrollable stressor, over and above what could be predicted from initial depression severity. Depressed patients rated the scale as acceptable. The DAQ may be a useful short measure of depressogenic attributions, which is easy to administer, and predicts concurrent and future depression. It has possible applications as a screening measure for risk of depression, or as a treatment process measur

How Disorder-Specific are Depressive Attributions? A Comparison of Individuals with Depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Healthy Controls

Depressed individuals tend to assign internal, stable, and global causes to negative events. The present study investigated the specificity of this effect to depression and compared depressive attributional styles of individuals with major depression (MD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and healthy controls. We indexed attributional style using the depressive attributions questionnaire in 164 participants. Additionally, we assessed appraisals characteristic of PTSD using the post-traumatic cognitions inventory (PTCI), depressive rumination, trauma history, and depression and PTSD symptom severity. Individuals with MD endorsed a depressive attributional style to a greater extent than both individuals with PTSD, who were not depressed, and healthy controls. Depressive attributional style was associated with the severity of depressive and PTSD symptoms, number and distress of traumatic experiences, frequency of rumination, and post-traumatic cognitions. Depressive attributions and PTCI appraisals independently predicted MD and PTSD symptom severity. They may thus be useful in predicting MD and PTSD, and should be targeted in psychological treatments of these conditions

Time-dependent changes in learning audiovisual associations: A single-trial fMRI study

Functional imaging studies of learning and memory have primarily focused on stimulus material presented within a single modality (see review by Gabrieli, 1998, Annu. Rev. Psychol. 49: 87-115). In the present study we investigated mechanisms for learning material presented in visual and auditory modalities, using single-trial functional magnetic resonance imaging. We evaluated time-dependent learning effects under two conditions involving presentation of consistent (repeatedly paired in the same combination) or inconsistent (items presented randomly paired) pairs. We also evaluated time-dependent changes for bimodal (auditory and visual) presentations relative to a condition in which auditory stimuli were repeatedly presented alone. Using a time by condition analysis to compare neural responses to consistent versus inconsistent audiovisual pairs, we found significant time-dependent learning effects in medial parietal and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. In contrast, time-dependent effects were seen in left angular gyrus, bilateral anterior cingulate gyrus, and occipital areas bilaterally. A comparison of paired (bimodal) versus unpaired (unimodal) conditions was associated with time-dependent changes in posterior hippocampal and superior frontal regions for both consistent and inconsistent pairs. The results provide evidence that associative learning for stimuli presented in different sensory modalities is supported by neural mechanisms similar to those described for other kinds of memory processes. The involvement of posterior hippocampus and superior frontal gyrus in bimodal learning for both consistent and inconsistent pairs supports a putative function for these regions in associative learning independent of sensory modality