Eye tracking and attentional bias for depressive internet memes in depression
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Eye tracking and attentional bias for depressive internet memes in depression Umair Akram1 · Jason G. Ellis2 · Glhenda Cau1 · Frayer Hershaw1 · Ashlieen Rajenthran1 · Mollie Lowe1 · Carissa Trommelen1 · Jennifer Drabble1 Received: 17 July 2020 / Accepted: 28 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Previous research highlights the potential benefits of engaging with depressive internet memes for those experiencing symptoms of depression. This study aimed to determine whether: compared to non-depressed controls, individuals experiencing depressive symptoms were quicker to orient and maintain overall attention for internet memes depicting depressive content relative to neutral memes. N = 21 individuals were grouped based on the severity of reported depression symptoms using the PhQ-9. Specifically, a score of: ≤ 4 denoted the control group; and ≥ 15 the depressive symptoms group. Participants viewed a series of meme pairs depicting depressive and neutral memes for periods of 4000 ms. Data for the first fixation onset and duration, total fixation count and total fixation and gaze duration of eye-movements were recorded. A significant group x meme-type interaction indicated that participants with depressive symptoms displayed significantly more fixations on depressive rather than neutral memes. These outcomes provide suggestive evidence for the notion that depressive symptoms are associated with an attentional bias towards socio-emotionally salient stimuli. Keywords Depression · Depressive memes · Internet memes · Selective attention · Attentional bias
Introduction The experience of depression is predominately characterized by disordered affect, paired with significant cognitive, emotional and behavioral deficits (American Psychiatric Association 2013). These symptoms are highly prevalent in the general population, affecting up to 27% of individuals according to meta-analytic data (Wang et al. 2017). Cognitive models of depression highlight the role of disorder consistent cognitive biases of information processing (i.e., attention, perception, memory) in the development and maintenance of the disorder (e.g., Beck 1976).
Communicated by Melvyn A. Goodale. * Umair Akram [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield S10 2BP, UK
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2
Whilst attentional biases based on reaction time measures are observed in this population, the evidence base remains mixed due to particular methodological differences (Mogg and Bradley 2005). Using the emotional Stroop and dotprobe tasks, studies largely confirm an attentional bias in depression when stimuli are presented for longer (i.e., ≥ 1 s, Donaldson et al. 2007; Gotlib and Cane 1987; Segal et al. 1995) relative to shorter (e.g., 500 ms; Bradley et al. 1995; Donaldson et al. 2007; Mogg et al. 1993) durations. Given the nature of these outcomes, it is theorized
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