Mean weighted unstandardized effect sizes for the negative vs. neutral
condition revealed that depressed people were statistically
significantly delayed in responding to negative words by approximately
D.=27.44ms, V.= 69.29, D.lb=11.13, D.ub=43.76. This
delay is very close to the delay observed by Macleod et al.'s (1987)
study which was not included in the meta-analysis (D=29.00) yielding
further support for the statistical conclusion validity of this
finding. The same delay is reflected when standardized effect sizes
are used, d.=.41, v.= 047, d.lb=.00, d.ub=.82. Because
the 95
confidence intervals around the unstandardized mean effect
size does not overlap with that for nondepressed people it may be said
that depressed people show statistically significantly more of a delay
with respect to negative words vs. neutral words than do nondepressed
people. As the 95
confidence intervals do overlap for the
standardized effect sizes, the wide variability among standard
deviations between studies may cast doubt on this finding.
The relative facilitation with respect to positive vs. neutral words found in nondepressed people is present to a greatly reduced degree in depressed people, D.=-3.79ms, V.= 209.07, D.lb=-32.14, D.ub=24.56. This value is neither statistically significant, nor statistically different from the corresponding contrast for nondepressed people. The small magnitude of the effect with respect to its variance is revealed by the small standardized effect size, d.=.022ms, v.= .055, d.lb=-.44, d.ub=.48. Similarly, depressed people were only very slightly, and not statistically significantly delayed with respect to negative vs. positive words, D.=-11.02ms, V.= 211.87, D.lb=-39.55, D.ub=17.51, d.=-.08, v.=.04, d.lb=-.49, d.ub=.33.