Attentional characteristics in processing visual verbal emotional information among individuals with depression prone

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2026.1828

Abstract

Abstract: Posner divides the components of attention into orientation, maintenance, and disengagement. In some groups with mood disorders, the characteristics of their attention to stimuli are different from those of healthy groups. According to Beck's theory of depression, in groups with mood disorders, such as the subclinically depressed group, they are more inclined to process negative stimuli. At present, few studies have scrutinized subclinically depressed college students on the two characteristics of attention maintenance and disengagement. The present study examined the attentional features of verbal emotional information processing in subclinically depressed college students with the help of eye-tracking technology. Firstly, Experiment 1 explored the processing characteristics of subclinically depressed students in the attention maintenance stage and the timing of their attentional bias by means of a free-viewing paradigm. Second, Experiment 2 explored the processing characteristics of this group in the attention disengagement stage through the gap-overlap paradigm.
The BDI-II-C and CES-D questionnaire were used to screen subclinically depressed participants. In Experiment 1. A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2 (group: subclinically depressed group, control group) × 3 (lexical valence: positive, neutral, negative) was used to examine the attentional characteristics of subclinically depressed participants using a free viewing task. The results revealed that (1) The total fixation time for negative words was significantly longer in the subclinically depressed group than in the control group. (2) The total fixation number of negative words was significantly greater than that of neutral words in subclinically depressed group; The total fixation number of positive words was significantly greater than that of neutral words in control group; (3) On the attentional bias scores, the negative attentional bias scores of the subclinically depressed group were significantly higher than those of the control group. The positive attention bias score of the control group was significantly higher than that of the subclinically depressed group.
Experiment 2 used a gap-overlap paradigm to examine the attentional disengagement of subclinically depressed college students. The experiment was a three-factor mixed experimental design of 3 (lexical valence: positive, neutral, negative) × 2 (group: subclinically depressed group, control group) × 2 (task type: gap task, overlap task). The results found that (1) Only in the overlap task, the saccade reaction time to negative words was significantly longer than that to positive words in the subclinically depressed group; the saccade reaction time to positive words was significantly longer than that to negative words in the control group. (2) The negative disengagement cost was significantly higher than the positive disengagement cost in the subclinically depressed group; The negative disengagement cost of control group was significantly lower than that of neutral disengagement cost.
Based on the above findings, the following conclusions were drawn in this study:
(1) In terms of the characteristics of attention maintenance, the attention bias of subclinically depressed college students does not appear in the early stage, but in the late stage, which is manifested as the attention bias to negative words.
(2) In terms of the characteristics of attentional disengagement, subclinically depressed college students have difficulty in attentional disengagement with negative words.
(3) Subclinically depressed college students showed attentional avoidance of positive words.

Key words: depressive tendencies, attentional bias, attentional disengagement, emotional word

LI Yutong, ZHANG Yinxian, LI Shan, SUI Xue. (2026). Attentional characteristics in processing visual verbal emotional information among individuals with depression prone. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 58(9), 1828-1842.

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