The Impact of Rumination Induction on IQ Performance

Performance deficits on cognitive tasks have been demonstrated consistently in depressed and anxious individuals. Processing efficiency theory asserts that these deficits might be accounted for by task-irrelevant processes, including the negative impact of rumination. This study was designed to better understand the relationship between cognitive deficits and depression by creating a ruminative state in healthy control subjects to determine if they would exhibit performance deficits similar to those observed in patients with depression. Specifically, the effect of rumination induction on select subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) was examined. Participants were college students with no current depression, anxiety, ADHD, or substance abuse disorders, who also are not currently taking psychoactive medications or receiving psychotherapy. Participants were randomized to a rumination or distraction condition and administered subtests from the WAIS-IV hypothesized to be most affected by rumination and depression. Controlling for test, math, and trait anxiety, as well as pre-experimental rumination, individuals in the rumination condition performed more poorly on one subtest within the processing speed domain, as well as on the Processing Speed Index score. These results support the processing efficiency model of cognitive deficits in depression, suggesting that rumination induction interferes in the efficient completion of mental tasks. Future research can build on these findings by studying this model in a clinical population and by continuing to improve the effectiveness of mood induction tasks for research on the effects of this widespread and significantly impairing disorder

Efficacy of Short-Term Emotional Regulation Training on Interference During Cognitive Tasks

The experience of emotion and attempts to regulate it are universal human phenomena. Emotion regulation is used to alter the affective intensity or tone, behaviors, and consequences associated with an emotional experience. This study examined how two common emotional regulation strategies (mindfulness and distraction) affect attentional performance following a negative mood induction via film. While previous literature has compared emotional regulation strategies’ effects on a variety of outcomes, the efficacy of these strategies to reduce cognitive interference caused by negative mood has not been examined. Both mindfulness and distraction are hypothesized to occur through the Attention Deployment mechanism of the Attention phase of emotional experience (Gross, 2014), but they have not been directly compared. Participants received a brief (six-minute) training in mindfulness or distraction or will receive no instructions (control condition). Following an exposure to two sadness-inducing films, they completed a cognitive testing battery, which includes a continuous performance test of attention, a symboldigit coding task, and an emotionally valenced Stroop paradigm. Despite pre-test differences in self-ratings of sadness and happiness, the mindfulness training somewhat ameliorated the expected decrease in happiness following the negative mood induction. Mindfulness training also was associated with a trend towards better performance across several variables of the continuous performance test and self-corrections on the Stroop task. Individuals who received no emotion regulation instructions tended to perform more slowly on several cards of the Stroop task. Results provided limited support for efficacy of mindfulness training in reducing consequences of a negative mood induction on affect and cognitive performance. Future studies should examine the effect of longer-term interventions for emotion regulation and cognitive performance and more closely explore the path of emotional experience after emotion regulation interventions