COGNITIVE BIASES AND AFFECT PERSISTENCE IN PREVIOUSLY DYSPHORIC AND NEVER-DYSPHORIC INDIVIDUALS

Persistence of affect and attentional and memory biases in dysphoria-p rone and nonvulnerable individuals were investigated. In two experimen ts, never-dysphoric (ND) individuals and previously dysphoric (PD) ind ividuals underwent a positive and a negative autobiographical mood-ind uction procedure (MIP). Following each MIP, individuals participated i n an emotional Stroop task. Participants also rated their mood both im mediately after, and five minutes after, each MIP. In addition, in Exp eriment 2, incidental memory for Stroop stimuli was assessed. PD parti cipants reported more persistent negative affect following a negative MIP than did ND participants. Although PD and ND participants did not differ from each other with respect to their performance on the emotio n Stroop task, PD participants demonstrated significantly better memor y for negative stimuli than did ND participants. Thus, affect dysregul ation and memory biases of PD participants outlasted the dysphoric epi sode. These findings suggest that memory biases and affect regulation style may play a causal role in susceptibility to depression.