The cognitive ethology approach has led to innovative new findings in other areas of attention research as well. It is well known that emotional disorders (e.g., depression) are typically related to a host of similarly debilitating cognitive disorders. Currently, the typical causal view of this relation is that cognitive dysfunction (e.g., attention and memory problems) is a result of the underlying emotional disorder, and therefore treating the emotional disorder will also resolve any related cognitive dysfunction. This commonly held causal view is not necessarily correct, however.
As a result of their ethological observations of the importance of attention for the proper execution of everyday tasks (Cheyne, Carriere, & Smilek, 2006), Carriere, Cheyne and Smilek (2008) hypothesized that the correct causal relation between cognitive dysfunction (i.e., attention and memory failures) and emotional dysfunction (i.e., depression) might actually be the reverse. Structural equation modelling provided support for this hypothesis, showing the best causal model for a large sample of questionnaire data was one in which an increased propensity to attention lapses and memory failures together predicted the onset of depressive symptoms.