EMOTIONAL PRIMING IN CLINICALLY DEPRESSED SUBJECTS

A study is described in which the Emotional Priming Paradigm (Power an d Brewin (1990) Cogn. Emotion 4, 39-51) was used with a group of curre ntly depressed patients and a group of nondepressed controls. The resu lts for the depressed patients showed significant facilitation effects on both the speed and rate of endorsement of negative trait adjective s when these were preceded by negative emotional primes. These results contrast with those obtained with the control subjects who failed to show such facilitation effects. The results are discussed in relation to the role of cognitive biases in depression.