Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Researchers have paid little attention to the factors that contribute to deficits in executive functioning in depression. A recent meta-analysis noted reaction time on cognitive tasks to be slower among depressed individuals but this “near significant” effect (Rock et al. 2014) could not explain their poorer task performance. Perhaps negative self-expectancy might be one explanatory factor. Indeed, subjective expectancy of success on a task has been found to predict actual performance on that task among nondepressed individuals (Garland, 1984). Given that depressed people have negative views of themselves (Haaga et al., 1991) and lower self-expectancy (Sawatzky et al., 2012), perhaps their actual performance will be similarly poorer. This study examines the degree to which negative self-expectancy predicts actual performance on tests of executive functioning in depression. Study participants will be patients with major depression and nondepressed control participants. All participants will complete the Executive Functions subtest of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery that covers four areas of executive functioning: planning, judgment, verbal fluency and abstract reasoning. Before engaging in the NAB tasks, all participants will be asked to estimate how well they think they will perform (self-expectancy). After completing the tasks, they will be asked how well they thought they did (self-evaluation). Results from this study have the potential to guide the interpretation of neuropsychological test results of patients with depression, and to inform interventions that are designed to improve cognitive functioning in depression.