Recall bias during adolescence: Gender differences and associations with depressive symptoms

Abstract

Background: There is a sharp increase in depression in females in mid-adolescence, but we do not understand why. Cognitive theories suggest that people with depression have negative biases in recalling self-referential information. We tested whether recall biases were more negative in girls in early and mid-adolescence and were associated with depressive symptoms.

Methods: 315 young and 263 mid-adolescents (11-12 and 13-15 years) completed a surprise test, assessing recall of social evaluation about the self (self-referential) or another person (other-referential). The short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire measured depressive symptoms. We tested the effects of condition (self-referential/other-referential), valence (positive/negative), gender, and age group on correct recall (hits) and associations with depressive symptoms.

Results: There was no evidence for gender or age differences in positive or negative self-referential recall. Self-referential positive hits were negatively associated with depressive symptoms (adjusted coefficient=-0.38, 95% CI=-0.69-0.08, p=0.01). Self-referential negative hits were positively associated with depressive symptoms (adjusted coefficient=0.45, 95% CI=0.15-0.75, p=0.003), and this association was stronger in females (adjusted interaction p=0.04).

Limitations: The reliability and validity of the recall task are unknown. We cannot provide evidence of a causal effect of recall on depressive symptoms in this cross-sectional study.

Conclusions: Adolescents who recalled more self-referential negative and fewer self-referential positive words had more severe depressive symptoms. Females did not demonstrate more recall biases, but the association between self-referential negative hits and depressive symptoms was stronger in females. Negative self-referential recall may be a risk factor for depressive symptoms and is a good candidate for longitudinal studies.

Keywords: Adolescence; Cognition; Depression; Gender difference; Memory; Recall bias.

Figure 1

Social Evaluation Learning task. An example of two trials from a self-referential block, in which the computer character is called Sam and the participant is learning what Sam thinks of them. After viewing a fixation cross, the participant was presented with a positive and negative word pair and instructed to choose the word which best corresponded with what Sam thought about them. They then received feedback about whether their choice was correct (green tick) or incorrect (red cross). Participants used trial and error to learn whether the character liked or disliked them over 20 trials. In the first trial shown here, the participant selected the positive word, which was correct. In the second trial, the participant chose the negative word, which was incorrect. Both of these trials show true (as opposed to misleading) feedback. To prevent ceiling effects, feedback contingency was set at 80%, so that ‘correct’ responses received an 8:2 ratio of positive to negative feedback and ‘incorrect’ responses received an 8:2 ratio of negative to positive feedback.

Figure 2

A) Mean hits according showing three-way interaction between age group, gender, and word condition (self-referential or other-referential). B) Mean hits showing three-way interaction between age group, gender, and word valence (positive or negative). C) Mean hits showing four-way interaction between age group, gender, condition and valence. All plotted using raw data.