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Rumination impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information, but not attention, control, or response selection in general.

Author
Abstract
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The aim of the study was to throw more light on the relationship between rumination and cognitive-control processes. Seventy-eight adults were assessed with respect to rumination tendencies by means of the LEIDS-r before performing a Stroop task, an event-file task assessing the automatic retrieval of irrelevant information, anĀ attentional set-shifting task, and the Attentional Network Task, which provided scores for alerting, orienting, and executive control functioning. The size of the Stroop effect and irrelevant retrieval in the event-five task were positively correlated with the tendency to ruminate, while all other scores did not correlate with any rumination scale. Controlling for depressive tendencies eliminated the Stroop-related finding (an observation that may account for previous failures to replicate), but not the event-file finding. Taken altogether, our results suggest that rumination does not affect attention, executive control, or response selection in general, but rather selectively impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information.

Year of Publication
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2018
Journal
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Psychological research
Date Published
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2018
ISSN Number
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0340-0727
URL
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https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-0986-7
DOI
:
10.1007/s00426-018-0986-7
Short Title
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Psychol Res
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