Abstract
The present study explored the impacts of depressive rumination on basic cognitive functioning. The study also examined rumination, worry, and negative affect as unique constructs in order to explore the relationship between level and type of rumination on cognitive task performance. The theoretical framework utilized to aide in the development of the hypotheses was the Habit-Goal Framework of Depressive Rumination. The sample consisted of 175 participants, with a mean age of 30.37 (SD= 3.63). Thirty seven multiple regression analyses and three correlation matrices were run to test six hypotheses. The results indicated that individuals who endorsed high levels of a ruminative and brooding thinking patterns performed worse on tasks of attention. Rumination, self-reflection, and brooding were all shown to have predictive power for attention and executive functioning task scores. Working memory, rumination, and attention all had significant relationships with both executive functioning variables. The interactions of attention, rumination, and brooding were statistically significant for the executive functioning task, demonstrating that the relationship between attention and executive functioning was changed by rumination and brooding level. Rumination, brooding, self-reflection, worry, positive and negative affect were mildly to moderately correlated with each other. Visual search (attention), Wisconsin card sort (executive functioning), and n-back task (working memory) were all moderately correlated with each other. Clinical and Cognitive variables were found to be mildly to moderately correlated, although no measure was found to be related to the scores of worry.