Differences in Source Monitoring Task Performance based on Levels of Negative Automatic Thoughts

This study aimed to examine the schema bias effect on a source monitoring task of negative self-descriptions. Our second purpose was to explore the relationship between source monitoring performance and depression-related variables. A total of 73 university students with higher and lower levels (± 1SD) of negative automatic thoughts (ATQ-N) were included. In the first phase, participants were presented the statement that a man always speaks the truth and a woman always speaks falsely. In the second phase, statements intermixed with new self-descriptions were presented on the computer screen, and the participants were to classify each as “new,” “true,” or “false.” The results of this study can be summarized as follows: the group with higher ATQ-N tended to choose the “true” response more often, and had a higher accuracy rate for the “true” items than did the group with lower ATQ-N. Second, the rate of “false” responses was negatively correlated with rumination, while the accuracy rate for “false” items was negatively correlated with belief in automatic negative thoughts (ATQ-NB) in the higher group. The present findings suggest that the automatic processing of source information about maladaptive schema plays an important role in depression-related cognition. Finally, the limitations of this study were discussed along with suggestions for further research.