Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026
Eye Movement Monitoring of Memory
Published on: August 15, 2010
Deficits in cue detection underlie event-based prospective memory impairment in major depression: an eye tracking
Siyi Chen1, Renlai Zhou, Hong Cui
1Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Research Center of Emotion Regulation, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Abstract:
This study examined the cue detection in the non-focal event-based prospective memory (PM) of individuals with and without a major depressive disorder using behavioural and eye tracking assessments. The participants were instructed to search on each trial for a different target stimulus that could be present or absent and to make prospective responses to the cue object. PM tasks included cue only and target plus cue, whereas ongoing tasks included target only and distracter only. The results showed that a) participants with depression performed more poorly than those without depression in PM; b) participants with depression showed more fixations and longer total and average fixation durations in both ongoing and PM conditions; c) participants with depression had lower scores on accuracy in target-plus-cue trials than in cue-only trials and had a higher gaze rate of targets on hits and misses in target-plus-cue trials than did those without depression. The results indicate that the state of depression may impair top-down cognitive control function, which in turn results in particular deficits in the engagement of monitoring for PM cues.
