The Relationship Between Rumination and Metacognition: Application of an Innovative Signal-detection Approach

Rumination, a stable vulnerability marker of depression, is associated with affective bias towards negative information as a result of cognitive control deficit. However, it is unclear whether ruminators are aware of such bias in their own cognitive processing. Based on the signaldetection approach, the present study examined metacognitive sensitivity associated with rumination. Specifically, we measured metacognitive sensitivity, the extent to which one’s confidence rating in a task tracks performance, using the meta-d’ method. In two directed-forgetting memory experiments, we examined whether ruminative trait (Experiment 1) and mood state (Experiment 2) influenced metacognitive sensitivity. Participants first studied images that were either negative or positive in emotion valence, each cued as either to-be-forgotten or to-beremembered. They then performed an old-new discrimination task and simultaneously indicated their confidence rating. In Experiment 1, we found an interaction between memory cue and rumination: High ruminators showed a larger difference in meta-d’ between to-be-forgotten and to-be-remembered items than low ruminators did. In Experiment 2, participants performed a similar memory task following either a sad or neutral mood induction. An interaction among valence, rumination, and mood was found: When feeling sad, high ruminators showed a larger difference in meta-d’ between negative and positive items than low ruminators did. Clinical implications of the results will be discussed.