Leiden University Student Repository

Picker, Niels (2022)

Influence of depression on a gaze cueing task

Bachelor thesis | Psychologie (BSc)

Non-verbal communication is an import social skill we humans have mastered. The eyes of others are of particular interest to us. Gaze direction in combination with the emotional expression on someone’s face, provides a plethora of information about location and evaluation. Theory of mind is important in understanding this information. There is evidence that depression can cause a bias towards negative stimuli, however not all studies regarding this subject find similar results. To investigate whether depression influences attention in a negative matter a gaze cueing paradigm was used. The level of depression was measured using the BDI. Our findings indicated an effect of cue validity, but not of emotion. The level of depression did not influence attention.

Attention

Eye-gaze

Depression

Emotion

Author

Picker, Niels

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Supervisors

Mulckhuijse, M.G.J.

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en