This study investigated the mechanisms underlying the processing of emotional information in Visual Working Memory (VWM) and explored related intervention Strategies for depression, focusing on the bias toward negative information. Using a change detection paradigm, four experiments were conducted with emotional (neutral, positive, and negative) faces as stimuli. In Experiment 1, emotional and neutral faces were simultaneously presented to examine how depressed and non-depressed participants process emotional information in VWM. In Experiment 2, the encoding time was controlled by presenting the faces sequentially, investigating the same question as in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, by inducing different emotions, we examined how the emotion influences emotional information processing in VWM of depressed and non-depressed participants. In Experiment 4, we assessed whether reinforcing the processing of positive information in depressed participants could help alleviate depression. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 showed that depressed participants had higher accuracy in processing negative information in VWM compared to non-depressed participants, while no significant differences were observed in processing neutral or positive information between the groups. In Experiment 3, inducing positive emotions eliminated the difference accuracy in VWM for negative information between the two groups. In Experiment 4, training focused on reinforcing positive information processing in VWM was found to reduce depression levels in depressed participants. Overall, the findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit a bias in VWM toward processing negative information, which can be mitigated by inducing positive emotions. Additionally, Training that reinforces positive information processing in working memory is effective in reducing depression.

Shouxin Li completed his PhD from Shandong Normal University, China in 2006. He is currently a professor at the school of psychology at Shandong Normal University and serves as the director of the Key Laboratory of Human Cognition and Behavior Development at Universities in Shandong Province, China. His primary research areas include human cognition and its mechanisms, as well as working memory processing mechanisms in depression. He has led and completed two projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, as well as projects supported by the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Sciences program and the National Education Science Planning Fund. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a sub-project titled "Neural Coding and Regulation Mechanisms of Attention" under the Ministry of Science and Technology's 2030 “Brain Science and Brain-like Research Program”. He has published more than 110 academic articles and authored or co-authored 10 books.