Eye movement evidence for defocused attention in dysphoria — A perceptual span analysis

The defocused attention hypothesis (von Hecker and Meiser, 2005) assumes that negative mood broadens attention, whereas the analytical rumination hypothesis (Andrews and Thompson, 2009) suggests a narrowing of the attentional focus with depression. We tested these conflicting hypotheses by directly measuring the perceptual span in groups of dysphoric and control subjects, using eye tracking. In the moving window paradigm, information outside of a variable-width gaze-contingent window was masked during reading of sentences. In measures of sentence reading time and mean fixation duration, dysphoric subjects were more pronouncedly affected than controls by a reduced window size. This difference supports the defocused attention hypothesis and seems hard to reconcile with a narrowing of attentional focus.

► We tested contradictory hypotheses about attention in dysphoria. ► Defocused attention h. assumes broadening whereas analytical rumination h. narrowing of attention. ► We measured perceptual span with eye tracking moving window paradigm. ► Dysphoric subjects were more affected by a reduced window size. ► The results support the defocused attention hypothesis.