The relationship between rumination and metacognition: Application of an innovative signal-detection approach
Start Date
27-3-2021 10:00 AM
End Date
27-3-2021 10:15 AM
Description
Rumination, a stable vulnerability marker of depression, is associated with affective bias towards negative information due to cognitive control deficit. However, whether ruminators are aware of this negative information bias remains unknown. Based on the signal-detection approach, the present study examined metacognition associated with rumination. Specifically, we measured metacognitive sensitivity, the extent to which one’s confidence tracks task performance, using the meta-d’ method. In three directed-forgetting memory experiments, I examined whether trait rumination (Experiment 1) and mood state (Experiments 2 and 3) influenced metacognitive sensitivity. Participants first studied images that were either negative or positive in emotion valence, each cued as either forget or remember. They then performed an old-new discrimination task and simultaneously indicated their confidence rating. In Experiment 1, an interaction between Valence and Rumination was found: High ruminators’ meta-d’ level decreased significantly when attending to positivevalence images. In Experiment 2, participants performed a similar memory task following either sad- or neutralmood induction. An interaction among Valence, Rumination, and Mood was observed: During sad mood, high ruminators’ meta-d’ level for processing positive-valence images became significantly lower relative to low ruminators. In Experiment 3, participants’ memory task was preceded by either a rumination- or distractionfocused task. Similarly, an interaction among Valence, Rumination, and Task indicated lower meta-d’ level when high ruminators attended to positive-valence images after rumination task. These findings suggest that trait and state ruminations are associated with metacognitive processing deficits in positive information. Clinical implications are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Tang, C. M., Lo, B., & Lee, A. (2021, March). The relationship between rumination and metacognition: Application of an innovative signal-detection approach. Presented at the Postgraduate Conference on Interdisciplinary Learning: Re-Imagining Postgraduate Studies in the 21st Century and Beyond. Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
The relationship between rumination and metacognition: Application of an innovative signal-detection approach
Rumination, a stable vulnerability marker of depression, is associated with affective bias towards negative information due to cognitive control deficit. However, whether ruminators are aware of this negative information bias remains unknown. Based on the signal-detection approach, the present study examined metacognition associated with rumination. Specifically, we measured metacognitive sensitivity, the extent to which one’s confidence tracks task performance, using the meta-d’ method. In three directed-forgetting memory experiments, I examined whether trait rumination (Experiment 1) and mood state (Experiments 2 and 3) influenced metacognitive sensitivity. Participants first studied images that were either negative or positive in emotion valence, each cued as either forget or remember. They then performed an old-new discrimination task and simultaneously indicated their confidence rating. In Experiment 1, an interaction between Valence and Rumination was found: High ruminators’ meta-d’ level decreased significantly when attending to positivevalence images. In Experiment 2, participants performed a similar memory task following either sad- or neutralmood induction. An interaction among Valence, Rumination, and Mood was observed: During sad mood, high ruminators’ meta-d’ level for processing positive-valence images became significantly lower relative to low ruminators. In Experiment 3, participants’ memory task was preceded by either a rumination- or distractionfocused task. Similarly, an interaction among Valence, Rumination, and Task indicated lower meta-d’ level when high ruminators attended to positive-valence images after rumination task. These findings suggest that trait and state ruminations are associated with metacognitive processing deficits in positive information. Clinical implications are discussed.