Recall of importance ratings of completed and uncompleted tasks as a function of depression

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was the evaluation of the effects of successful completion of tasks versus failure in completion of tasks on the subsequent recall of these tasks by depressed and nondepressed college students. Also of interest was the relative importance these students would assign to these completed and uncompleted tasks. Subjects were asked to complete 20 paper-and-pencil tasks, 10 of which were terminated by the experimenter prior to completion. Subjects were then asked to recall as many of the tasks as possible and then to rate each task as to the relative importance of the skill(s) measured in the task. Depressed subjects recalled more uncompleted tasks than completed tasks, while the reverse was observed in nondepressed subjects. These findings were interpreted as consistent with, but extensions of, research on recall of frequency of reinforcement. Nondepressed subjects, but not depressed subjects, also rated the completed tasks as measuring more important skills than the uncompleted tasks. These results were seen as suggestive of the utilization of self-enhancing distortions by nondepressed but not by depressed subjects.