Abstract
Both rumination and sustained attentional biases have been proposed as key components of the RDoC Negative Valence Systems construct of Loss. However, it is unclear whether the link between rumination and attentional biases is related to specific sub-types of rumination, and is observable independently of depression level. The current study examined the link between rumination and attentional biases in a sample of non-depressed individuals (n = 105). To assess sustained attentional biases, fixation durations were measured during a passive viewing task with 2 × 2 arrays of angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. Higher levels of brooding rumination, a rumination sub-type associated with a negative self-focus, were associated with greater sustained attention to sad faces and less sustained attention to happy faces. Results remained significant after controlling for participants' prior history of major depression and current non-clinical level of depressive symptoms, suggesting a link between brooding rumination and attentional biases outside of depression.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2017