Research article summary (published 30 Jan 1990):

Negatively biased recall in children with self-reported symptoms of depression.

Full Abstract

This study investigated differences in depressed and nondepressed children's recall of positively and negatively reinforced behavior. Twenty-six children with self-reported symptoms of depression in the fourth through sixth grades were compared with a matched sample of 26 nondepressed children to determine if there was a negative bias in depressed children's recall. Subjects first generated guesses of the most common associations to each of a series of 40 words. Later, when compared with their nondepressed peers, the children with depressive symptomology were less accurate in recalling which words they had answered correctly and remembered fewer of their own correct responses. They also did more poorly when asked to recall the correct answers that had been provided by the investigator. The two groups did not differ, however, in their recall of which items had been answered incorrectly or in their recall of their previous wrong responses. These results suggest that children with self-reported depressive symptomology do not remember negative experiences more than do nondepressed children; rather, they recall positive experiences less well. Selective forgetting of positively reinforced behavior could be a serious handicap for depressed children in school. It could also play an important role in the maintenance and perhaps even the etiology of depressive symptomatology in children.

Author information

Author/s: Whitman, P B (PB); Leitenberg, H (H);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, Burlington 05405.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of abnormal child psychology (J Abnorm Child Psychol), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1990-Feb; vol 18 (issue 1) : pp 15-27

Dates: Created 1990/05/24; Completed 1990/05/24; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 2324399, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Achievement Child Depression - psychology Female Humans Male

Memory Mental Recall Personality Tests Reinforcement, Verbal Set (Psychology) Word Association Tests

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