The Low and Narrow: A Preliminary Test of the Association Between Depressive Symptoms and Deficits in Producing Divergent Inferences

Abstract

Depression is associated with biased interpretations and beliefs that are resistant to change. This kind of cognitive rigidity may depend on two distinct factors—a reduced ability for processing information that conflicts with these interpretations and beliefs and a reduced ability for generating alternative representations. Although depressive symptoms are typically not associated with deficits in common divergent thinking tasks, these tasks may not be sensitive or specific enough to detect the rigid cognition associated with depression. Accordingly, a novel task was developed to assess divergent thinking in line with the level of construal and thematic contents typical of depressive cognit..