Abstract

BOTELHO DE OLIVEIRA, Silvia; JAIMES ALVARADO, Laura Fernanda  and  CONDE CO, Carlos Arturo. Long-term effects of depressive symptoms on a task of visual working memory with and without attentional interference. Suma Psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.22, n.1, pp.29-36. ISSN 0121-4381.

The neurobiology of depression involves structural changes in the nervous system associated with cognitive processes such as memory and attention. This study sought to evaluate the long-term effect of depressive symptomatology (DS) using a task of visual working memory with or without attentional interference in college students. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used wherein the independent variables were the clinical condition (with and without DS) and the Memonum version (with and without interference of color). The Memonum consists of software to evaluate working memory through retention of direct digits, in two versions: a black-white (without interference) and another with a color attentional distractor (with interference). Depressive symptomatology was evaluated by applying the CES-D to 76 undergraduates. Two week after the diagnosis of DS, the test version was randomly applied (with or without attentional interference). The DS did not alter long-term performance of the tasks involved in visual working memory with or without attentional interference. However, it was found that the use of strategies for mnemonic task performance depended on the clinical condition, being the strategy of grouping the least used by the participants with DS.

Keywords : Visual working memory; Depressive symptomatology; CES-D; Attention strategies mnemonics.

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