SynthesisPsychological bulletin2016
Reward devaluation: Dot-probe meta-analytic evidence of avoidance of positive information in depressed persons.
Synthesis in Psychological bulletin, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Catalyst for change: Psilocybin's antidepressant mechanisms-A systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Amplification of positivity for depression and anxiety: Neural prediction of treatment response.Behaviour research and therapy · 2024Trial
- Dose‒Response Effects of Patient Engagement on Anxiety and Depression in a Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention: Secondary Analysis of a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial and a Clinical Controlled Trial.AIDS and behavior · 2024Trial
- Positive affect treatment targets reward sensitivity: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2023Trial
- Anhedonia as a clinical correlate of suicidal thoughts in clinical ketamine trials.Journal of affective disorders · 2017Trial
- Transient arousal-driven or valence-driven? The effects of alerting cues on the attentional boost effect in depression-prone individuals.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- The dynamics of loneliness: Longitudinal associations of anhedonia and dampening in a clinical sample of depressed individuals.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- The diverse relationship between self-prioritization effect and emotional valence: Self-positivity bias and self-negative repulsion.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Article
- Self-Schemata and Suicidal Thoughts and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Longitudinal and Bidirectional Associations in Adolescent Inpatients.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Insomnia longitudinally predicts reduced reward motivation in adults with elevated depressive symptoms.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Associations Between Cognitive Functions and Subsequent Mood Disorder Prognosis in Low-Risk, High-Risk and Affected Monozygotic Twins: A Seven-Year Follow-Up Study.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2026Article
- Adaptive Attentional Regulation to Emotional Faces in Subclinical Depression.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Academic burnout and internet gaming disorder in Chinese adolescents: The chain mediating roles of depressive symptoms and negative attentional bias.Pediatric investigation · 2026Article
- Dampening of Positive Affect Serves an Emotional Contrast Avoidance Function: Preliminary Evidence From an Adult Community Sample.Journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- Temporal Predictions from Anhedonia To Anxiety in Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Article
- Fear of Happiness and Devaluation of Positive Climate Information in Climate-Concerned Individuals.Personality and individual differences · 2025Article
- The Positive Effect of Negative Stimuli: Exposure to Negative Emotional Stimuli Improves Mood in Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Active information sampling in health and disease.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Semantic signals in self-reference: The detection and prediction of depressive symptoms from the daily diary entries of a sample with major depressive disorder.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2025Article
- From anxiety to depression: A longitudinal investigation into the role of anhedonia.Journal of affective disorders · 2025Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cognitive theories of depression and anxiety have traditionally emphasized the role of attentional biases in the processing of negative information. The dot-probe task has been widely used to study this phenomenon. Recent findings suggest that biased processing of positive information might also be an important aspect of developing psychopathological symptoms. However, despite some evidence suggesting persons with symptoms of depression and anxiety may avoid positive information, many dot-probe studies have produced null findings. The present review used conventional and novel meta-analytic methods to evaluate dot-probe attentional biases away from positive information and, for comparison, toward negative information, in depressed and anxious individuals. Results indicated that avoidance of positive information is a real effect exhibiting substantial evidential value among persons experiencing psychopathology, with individuals evidencing primary symptoms of depression clearly demonstrating this effect. Different theoretical explanations for these findings are evaluated, including those positing threat-processing structures, even-handedness, self-regulation, and reward devaluation, with the novel theory of reward devaluation emphasized and expanded. These novel findings and theory suggest that avoidance of prospective reward helps to explain the cause and sustainability of depressed states. Suggestions for future research and methodological advances are discussed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.