Intraindividual Trajectories of Belief Updating in Relation to Depressive Symptoms: Reduced Integration of Positive Performance Feedback

Abstract

Previous research suggests that depression is related to difficulties with revising established negative expectations. However, it is not yet clear how precisely these difficulties transpire. We addressed this question by adapting a well-established experimental paradigm into a trial-by-trial learning task in a nonclinical sample (N = 391; 50.6% with elevated depressive symptoms). Negative versus positive performance expectations were initially established before they were confirmed versus disconfirmed. Multilevel analysis revealed that participants formed and subsequently revised performance expectations along decelerating trajectories. Increased levels of depressive symptoms were significantly associated with a reduced revision of initially established negative expectations when the feedback’s valence turned positive such that participants’ expectations were disconfirmed. Conversely, depressive symptoms were not significantly related to an increased revision of positive expectations in response to disconfirming negative feedback. Our results align with the view that lower responsiveness to positive expectation-disconfirming information is a critical feature of depressive symptoms.

Keywords

depressive symptoms belief updating expectation violation cognitive immunization experimental psychopathology

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