Bond University From the SelectedWorks of Gregory J. Boyle 1986 Depressed mood effects on processing of highand low content structure text in American and Australian college women Gregory J. Boyle, University of Melbourne Available at: https://works.bepress.com/greg_boyle/149/
Depressed Mood Effects on Processing of High- and Low content Structure Text in American and Australian College Women Gregory J. Boyle 123 University of Delaware 1 The author (currently an academic faculty member at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia) is indebted to his PhD co-advisers for their constructive advice - Professor Jack Pikulski and Professor Sylvia Farnham-Diggory, College of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. 2 Professor Carrol Izard, Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA allowed use of his DES-III instrument and was a member of the author s dissertation committee. 3 Professor Jum Nunnelly, Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA, during a visit to the University of Delaware, provided advice on the use of the repeated-measures application of the multiple discriminant function analysis on the DES-III items.
Abstract Depressed mood at encoding and retrieval of high- (HCS) and low-content structure (LCS) text was studied in samples of American and Australian college women. Within each sample, undergraduate students were allocated to one of three subgroups: 1) an Acquisition Group - received Velten depressogenic statements before reading a passage of text. 2) a Retrieval Group - received the same treatment immediately after reading the passage, while 3) a Neutral group - received neutral statements only. Depressed mood at encoding but not at retrieval was associated with a decrement in LCS cued recall scores only, consistent with a limited-capacity model, wherein interference due to depressed mood reduced task relevant processing capacity in short-term memory (STM).
An important aspect of text is the structural organization of content. Highcontent structure information (HCS) represents gist, whereas low-content structure material (LCS) involves textual detail. Meyer (1975) showed that HCS is better retained and recalled than LCS. Meyer's analysis of textual structure is based on accepted linguistic work; it specifies logical relationships within text and it facilitates analysis of text comprehension processes (cf. Kintsch & Young, 1984). Mood effects on learning and memory (Boyle, 1983) might be localized in either storage or retrieval mechanisms. According to Ellis et al. (1984, p. 480). "The small amount of information on this question suggests that mood effects on retrieval may be limited or negligible. HCS schemata (Rumelhan, 1980) should facilitate storage in STM thereby making little demand on cognitive capacity, whereas lack of appropriate schemata (LCS) should overload STM. This limitedcapacity model has received much support (e.g., Britton et al., 1982). At encoding, depressed mood might reduce storage of LCS but not of HCS (for which the demand on STM capacity is not critical). At retrieval, depressed mood might hinder recall of information not stored in superordinate positions in the memory structure (LCS), thereby increasing the disparity in HCS and LCS recall. This paper examines these possibilities. Method Subjects The 154 women in Sample 1 were all University of Delaware undergraduates whose mean age was 20.93 years (S.D. = 4.36 years). The 124 undergraduate women in the second sample were from the same population (mean
age 21.65 years, S.D. = 2.65 years). Sample 3 comprised 74 undergraduate women at the Melbourne College of Advanced Education, Australia (mean age 21.74 years, S.D. = 2.59 years). Design and Procedure Each sample comprised three subgroups. An Acquisition group received 60 Velten (1968) depressogenic statements, responded to Izard s Differential Emotions Scale (DES-III - see Boyle. 1984, for information concerning the reliability and validity of the DES-III), read a passage about parakeets (from Meyer. 1975), received 60 neutral Velten statements and answered a cued recall test of 18 items (cf. Tyler & Voss. 1982) involving HCS and LCS textual idea units. The DES-III is a 30-item self-report inventory with each item scored on a 5-point Likert-type scale, measuring 10 fundamental emotions labeled: Interest, Joy, Surprise, Sadness, Fear, Shame/Shyness, Guilt, Anger, Disgust, and Contempt. Izard et al. (1974, p. 32) reported a test-retest stability coefficient of 0.77 for the trait version of the DES-III scale over a time interval of several months. Izard et al. (1974, p. 1) stated that, The DES focuses on 10 discrete emotions, each of which was defined theoretically as having neural, neuromuscular-expressive, and experiential components. The components are interactive, but in the fundamental emotion process the common order of occurrence is: (a) efferent neural activity in the facial nerve and consequent patterned facial expression; (b) sensory feedback from the expression via the trigeminal nerve; (c) cortical integration of the sensory data and consequent subjective experience.
Validity of the Velten statements as a mood-induction procedure is well documented (e.g., Snyder & White. 1982; Clark. 1983). The DES measured those aspects of the depressive pattern of fundamental emotions affected by the Velten depressogenic treatment (cf. Boyle. 1985). The 630 word passage was analyzed previously for HCS and LCS idea units. In the cued recall test (cues comprised up to four words from the passage central to the respective idea units), students wrote down everything they could remember. Discrepancies in scoring were resolved by raters who were required to reach a consensus. Results and Discussion In all samples, multivariate ANOVA's (Finn. 1977) on cued recall scores indicated significant differences across the three groups. Mean LCS scores were highly significant (F (3,151) = 8.85. p <.004; F (3,121) = 3.75, p <.03; F (3,68) = 5.07, p <.01), in each sample. No significant effects occurred for HCS scores, however. Within each sample, the mean LCS score for the Acquisition group was significantly lower than that for the Retrieval and Neutral groups combined (F (2,151) = 11.15, p <.001; F (2,121) = 5.24. p <.02; F (2,68) = 7.61. p <.01). Means and standard deviations are shown in Table 1.
Sample and Treatment Group Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations for HCS and LCS Cued Recall Memory Scores across Treatments Cued Recall Scores HCS LCS N = 154 Acquisition 6.03 (1.40) 2.54 (1.44) Retrieval 6;12 (1.27) 3.67 (1.38) Neutral 6.00 (1.55) 3.05 (1.33) N = 124 Acquisition 4.84 (1.95) 2.98 (1.73) Retrieval 5.32 (1.68) 4.00 (1.54) Neutral 5.21 (1.85) 3.44 (1.87) N = 74 Acquisition 4.92 (1.80) 2.40 (1.29) Retrieval 4.69 (1.41) 3.12 (1.51) Neutral 5.61 (1.64) 3.70 (1.55) Note. Standard deviations shown in parentheses. The multivariate between groups effect for DES scores was significant in all three samples (F (24,274) = 3.60, p <.0001; F (20,224) = 1.58. p <.05; F (20.118) = 2.51.. p <.001). Only the contrast between the Acquisition vs Retrieval and Neutral groups combined was significant (F (12,137) = 4.50, p <.0001; F (10,112) = 2.40, p <.01; F(10,59) = 3.88, p <.0005). Of the DES depressive subscales (Sadness. Shame. Anger, Fear and Guilt), the main subscale (Sadness) was very significantly elevated for the Acquisition group in all three samples. Moreover, Anger and Guilt were also significantly elevated in all samples (Table 2). All three samples exhibited a significant lowering of LCS cued recall scores for the Acquisition group only but not for the Retrieval group. As the Velten treatment was effective in all three samples for the Acquisition group, there is no reason to question their validity for the Retrieval group.
DES Subscale Table 2 Mean DES S ubscale Scores for the Second American and Australian Samples Velten Condition Depressive Neutral Neutral p less than Interest 6.14 (6.76) 6.07 (7.54) 5.49 (6.87) n.s. (n.s.) Joy 6.95 (7.80) 8.51 (9.12) 8.59 (8.57).03 (n.s.) Surprise 4.77 (5.40) 4.61 (5.54) 4.95 (5.74) n.s. (n.s.) Sadness 7.68 (8.40) 5.54 (5.38) 6.44 (5.74).01 (.0001) Anger 6.39 (5.28) 4.85 (4.88) 5.44 (3.78).05 (0.3) Disgust 5.73 (5.00) 4.34 (4.85) 4.56 (3.43).02 (.003) Concempt 5.80 (6.08) 5.73 (4.92) 5.87 (4.13) n.s. (.002) Fear 5.27 (5.04) 3.71 (4.35) 4.54 (3.70).01 (n.s.) Shame/Shyness 4.73 (5.60) 4.00 (4.19) 4.49 (3.61) n.s. (.004) Guilt 5.68 (6.08) 4.27 (4.81) 5.26 (4.17).04 (.02) Notes. Data for Australian sample in parentheses. Following the crossvalidational principle, only those subscales which were significant in both samples can be regarded as showing real effects due to presentation of the depressive Velten statements. Conclusions Listening to negative Velten statements produced two effects. First, depressed mood had a differential impact on textual detail as opposed to gist, such that LCS was less readily recalled than under neutral conditions, whereas no deficit was apparent for recall of HCS. Second, depressed mood failed to interfere significantly with retrieval. In none of the three samples was the mean LCS cued recall score for the Retrieval group significantly lowered as com pared with the Neutral group. Despite findings of Britton et al. (1982), the present findings suggest that retrieval-deficit is less relevant to text processing than is encodingdeficit. This supports Ellis et al. (1984) that debilitating effects of depressed mood operate primarily at encoding rather than at retrieval, consistent with a limitedcapacity model of STM.
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