Depressive realism and the effect of intertrial interval on judgements of zero, positive, and negative contingencies

Rachel Msetfi, R.A. Murphy, Jane Simpson

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    41 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In three experiments we tested how the spacing of trials during acquisition of zero, positive, and negative response-outcome contingencies differentially affected depressed and nondepressed students' judgements. Experiment 1 found that nondepressed participants' judgements of zero contingencies increased with longer intertrial intervals (ITIs) but not simply longer procedure durations. Depressed groups' judgements were not sensitive to either manipulation, producing an effect known as depressive realism only with long ITIs. Experiments 2 and 3 tested predictions of Cheng's (1997) Power PC theory and the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model, that the increase in context exposure experienced during the ITI might influence judgements most with negative contingencies and least with positive contingencies. Results suggested that depressed people were less sensitive to differences in contingency and contextual exposure. We propose that a context-processing difference between depressed and nondepressed people removes any objective notion of “realism” that was originally employed to explain the depressive realism effect (Alloy & Abramson, 1979).
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)461-481
    JournalQuarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (QJEP)
    Volume60
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2007

    Keywords

    • Psychology

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Depressive realism and the effect of intertrial interval on judgements of zero, positive, and negative contingencies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this