Depression and problem-solving performance on a fault-diagnosis task

Dysphoric and control undergraduates selected on the basis of Beck Depression Inventory scores were compared on a problem-solving task involving fault-diagnosis. The stimuli were wiring diagrams showing boxes or units connected to indicators, and the aim was to diagnose which one of the units was faulty. Dysphoric subjects did not differ from controls on problems requiring them to use the information available at the outset of the problem to identify al the potentially faulty units. They were impaired relative to controls in testing connections that they believed to be potentially faulty until the faulty unit was diagnosed; they made more repetition errors, carried out more redundant tests, and were slower than controls, although the groups did not differ in the number of correct solutions achieved. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical models that posit impaired strategic processing in depression.