Grzegorz Sedek

When cognitive exertion does not yield cognitive gain: Toward an informational explanation of learned helplessness.

This study tested a new information-processing explanation of learned helplessness that proposes that an uncontrollable situation produces helplessness symptoms because it is a source of inconsistent, self-contradictory task information during problem-solving attempts. The flow of such information makes hypothesis-testing activity futile. Prolonged and inefficient activity of this kind leads in turn to the emergence of a state of cognitive exhaustion, with accompanying performance deficits. In 3 experiments, Ss underwent informational helplessness training (IHT): They were sequentially exposed to inconsistent task information during discrimination problems. As predicted, IHT was associated with subjective symptoms of irreducible uncertainty and resulted in (a) performance deterioration on subsequent avoidance learning, (b) heightened negative mood, and (c) subjective symptoms of cognitive exhaustion.

Repeated failure: a source of helplessness or a factor irrelevant to its emergence?

We tested the validity of the egotism model of human helplessness. In contrast to the original theoretical approach of Seligman and his associates, which points to response-outcome noncontingency as the main source of helplessness, the egotism alternative proposes that repeated failure itself is the critical determinant of helplessness symptoms. Repeated failure threatens the self-esteem of the subject, who supposedly engages in a least-effort strategy during the test phase of a typical learned helplessness study, which results in performance impairment. To examine the egotism explanation, we gave subjects noncontingent-feedback training with or without repeated failure on five consecutive discrimination problems. In two experiments, noncontingent-feedback preexposure produced helplessness deficits in performance on avoidance learning, whereas repeated failure appeared irrelevant to helplessness. This and our other findings from research are inconsistent with the egotism explanation and support instead Seligmans original proposal, in which helplessness is attributed to prolonged experience with noncontingency.

Uncontrollability, depression, and the construction of mental models

Three studies examined mental model generation after preexposure to uncontrollability and in a depressive state. The purpose of the experiments was to test the implications of the cognitive exhaustion model, applying an explicit conceptualization of social mental models and a process-tracing method developed by U. von Hecker (1997). An experimental situation was created for observation of consecutive, rule-based construction steps as a function of input diagnosticity, and for the quality assessment of constructed mental models. The findings show that participants preexposed to uncontrollability, as well as depressed students, were able, as were controls, to identify rule-relevant information needed for model construction. However, they were less able than control participants to engage in a more cognitively demanding and generative step of processing (i.e., in integrating the pieces of input information into a coherent mental model of sentiment relations).

Uncontrollability as irreducible uncertainty

This paper tests a prediction from the information-processing model of helplessness (Sedek & Kofta, 1990) that during exposure to uncontrollability people experience high levels of irreducible uncertainty. Participants were given either a solvable or unsolvable discrimination task consisting of five problems. After completion of each problem participants evaluated the probability of all solution hypotheses. Three times during the course of each problem, participants indicated the solution hypotheses they were considering at that point. As predicted (1) entropy of the hypothesis set (the uncertainty measure) was higher under unsolvable than solvable tasks; (2) a gradual reduction in the number of hypotheses was noted in the solvable but not unsolvable task condition; and (3) uncertainty was a reliable predictor of self-reported cognitive difficulties with thinking production and attention. Copyright

Positive effects of subclinical depression in prospective memory and ongoing tasks in young and old adults.

ABSTRACT Results reported in the literature show that depression can have either negative or neutral effects on prospective memory (PM). The goal of the present study was to broaden the analysis of depression-related effects on PM, with regard to the possibility that subclinical depression may have positive influence on PM. A total of 120 participants from four groups (young/old, subclinically depressed/non-depressed) completed event- and time-based PM tasks embedded in the linear orders task or stories task, respectively. In the event-based PM task no effects of depression were found, whereas depressed participants were more accurate in the time-based PM task, where higher monitoring during the last minute of the task was observed. It was also found that depressed participants built a mental model in the linear orders task more accurately than controls. Results of the present study are discussed with reference to the analytical rumination hypothesis.

Uncontrollability as a Source of Cognitive Exhaustion

In the last three decades, a psychological response to circumstances that jeopardize human striving for control has emerged as a prominent topic in psychological inquiry. Researchers increasingly have asked how loss of control affects human motivation, mood, and cognitive processing. In addition, attention has been directed to the effects of loss of control on psychological well-being, adaptation, and interpersonal relationships.

Impaired Systematic, Higher Order Strategies in Depression and Helplessness: Testing Implications of the Cognitive Exhaustion Model

Cognitive exhaustion is explored as theoretical perspective in analyzing cognitive deficits observed as a result of learned helplessness and depression. According to this view, mild depression or uncontrollability does not reduce motivation to perform, but instead limits the resources available for systematic, higher order strategies of thinking. We report two lines of research. First, using category learning, we distinguish between tasks in which performance benefits from systematic and flexible strategies, and those that equally benefit from simpler fallback strategies. Helplessness-trained persons, compared to controls, are less likely to apply the former strategies. Second, we focus on mental model construction. After learning preliminary materials control participants demonstrated a generative way of thinking. They systematically applied logical rules to construct mental models, whereas depressed and helplessness-trained persons showed little evidence of such constructive activity. We discuss these findings in relation to other theories about cognitive deficits in depression and helplessness.

Effects of Age and Initial Risk Perception on Balloon Analog Risk Task: The Mediating Role of Processing Speed and Need for Cognitive Closure.

According to the dual-process theoretical perspective adopted in the presented research, the efficiency of deliberative processes in decision making declines with age, but experiential processes are relatively well-preserved. The age-related differences in deliberative and experiential processes in risky decision-making were examined in this research by applying the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART). We analyzed the influence of age on risk acceptance and decision-making performance in two age groups of female participants (younger adults, n = 81; older adults, n = 76), with additional experimental manipulation of initial risk perception. We predicted and confirmed that aging significantly worsens performance on the behavioral BART measures due to age-related decline in deliberative processes. Older participants were found to exhibit significantly higher risk aversion and lower BART performance, and the effect of age was mediated by cognitive (processing speed) and motivational (need for cognitive closure) mechanisms. Moreover, older adults adapt to the initial failure (vs. success) similarly, as younger adults due to preserved efficiency of experiential processes. These results suggest future directions for minimizing negative effects of aging in risky decision-making and indicate compensatory processes, which are preserved during aging.

Differences in target monitoring in a prospective memory task

The goal of the present study was to examine individual differences in the degree to which controlled attention is allocated towards a prospective memory (PM) task. Using a PM task that should require high levels of controlled attention in a sample of 138 young, middle-aged, and older adults, two subgroups of participants could be identified, i.e., participants who clearly demonstrated evidence for monitoring and those for whom no clear evidence for monitoring was revealed. A control group (n=95) was tested to control for practice effects in the ongoing task. Differences between subgroups were examined in terms of age, PM accuracy, baseline ongoing task performance, and general negative mood. Nonmonitorers and monitorers differed in age (more older adults being nonmonitorers), ongoing task accuracy (a nonsignificant trend was observed here), PM task accuracy (both young and middle-aged/older monitorers were more accurate than nonmonitorers), and the number of reported depressive symptoms (nonmonitorers > monitorers). Moreover, results showed that even in nonmonitorers PM accuracy was above floor level, indicating that noticing and reacting to some of PM cues is possible without strongly investing in resource demanding monitoring processes.

The unique cognitive limitation in subclinical depression: the impairment of mental model construction

The notion of “depression” is frequently employed to describe a broader category of depressive symptoms, dysphoria, and the depression syndrome as such (Joormann, 2005). Numerous debates in the literature have addressed the issue of continuity, the question of whether moderate depression symptoms (called subclinical depression) differ quantitatively or qualitatively from severe clinical depression. Flett, Vredenburg, and Kramses (1997) drew up a summary indicating that the available data is generally consistent with the hypothesis of continuity. In this chapter, we review data from studies in which subclinical forms of depressive disorders were taken into account: those that are mild in terms of severity. Depression is then seen as an affective disorder characterized by persistent negative mood (without an elevated level of arousal) and specific deficits in cognitive functioning. These deficits include “ruminative” thinking, recurring ideas and thoughts with negative or self-devaluing content. Such deficits also involve individuals with depression experiencing difficulty in solving complex cognitive problems, and solving problems that require reasoning about deeper social relations.