Mar 19 2009
Depressed People Have Trouble Learning Positive Information
A new study suggests depressed people may be missing out on the positive things in life. The study was conducted by Laren Conklin, graduate student in psychology, and Daniel Strunk, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.
The researchers used a computer game known as BeanFest to measure participants’ attitudes toward learning new negative and positive information. The game contains good beans and bad beans. A person can distinguish between the two types of beans based on how many speckles a bean has and the shape of the bean. Good beans earned a participant points while bad beans took away points. The goal of the game is to get as many points as possible.
Seventeen college participants with clinical depression and seventeen students without depression participated in the study. During the game phase, each participant played the game, deciding whether or not to accept or reject a bean as it appeared on the computer screen. After each turn, the particpant was shown how many points he or she earned or had detracted if he or she accepted a bean or how many points he or she would have earned or had detracted if he or she had accepted the bean.
Each bean was shown three different times during this phase so that participants had a sufficient opportunity to learn which beans were good versus which beans were bad.
