Intervention Effect of Emotional Working Memory Training on University Students With Depressive Symptom

1. Participants and Design The G*Power 3.1 program was used to determine the recommended sample size is 46 for the study(d=0.35,1-β＝80％,α=0.05). This anticipated effect size was based on a working memory training intervention experiment, which had a medium effect size (Unread and Koster 2014).

The participants were recruited from Fujian Medical University, and 278 students volunteered to take part in the BDI-Ⅱ. Finally, 50 university students with BDI-II scores above 14 points and with no suicidal behavior were recruited as participants. They were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n=25) or a control group (n=25). After grouping, the participants' rumination tendency and working memory ability were assessed using the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) and the Character-Digital Breadth Test.

Subsequently, the experimental group completed twenty-one 20 to 30 minute EWM-T training sessions within one month, and the control group was not treated. A month later, the participants were assessed again for depressive symptoms, working memory ability, and rumination tendency.

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Fujian Medical University, and all the participants provided signed informed consent. If they were found to be at risk of suicide, the experiment was terminated immediately. If the participants felt uncomfortable, they could withdraw from the experiment at any time, and psychological help was provided if they so desired. 2. Materials and Measures 2.1 Beck Depression Inventory-Ⅱ (BDI-Ⅱ) The BDI-II is the most prevalent self-report scale assessing the presence and severity of depressive symptoms. It is a 21-item scale that was used to assess the severity of depressive symptoms in the past two weeks. The scores range from 0 to 63. A higher total score on the scale indicated more severe depressive symptoms. (Wang 2011).

2.2 Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) The Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) is a scale of 22 items scored on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never) to 4 (almost always). It was used to assess ruminative thinking, with higher scores indicating a higher degree of ruminative symptoms. It includes three dimensions: symptom rumination, forced thinking, and introspective. The Chinese version of the RRS is suitable for evaluating the rumination thinking of Chinese university students (Han and Yang 2009).