The role of emotional memory in reappraising negative self-referent thoughts
Nieto,Ines Koster,Ernst H. W. Everaert,Jonas
Nieto,Ines
Koster,Ernst H. W.
Everaert,Jonas
Abstract
Background Reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that has been linked to positive emotional and health outcomes. However, the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of reappraisal remain understudied and not well understood. To address this limitation, the present study examined whether long-term memory processes, including emotional memory accessibility, memory bias, and overgeneral memory, are related to individual differences in reappraisal effectiveness. Methods All participants (N = 101) completed a memory accessibility and sentence completion memory task to measure bias, specificity, and accessibility of emotional memories. Next, participants completed an emotion regulation task requesting them to either attend to or reappraise negative self-referent thoughts. Results The results of the linear regression models showed that memory bias, but not memory specificity or accessibility, accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in the effectiveness of reappraisal. Retrieval of more negative memories was related to lower reductions in negative mood. Conclusions These findings suggest that emotional long-term memory processes, and particularly memory bias, may modulate downregulation of negative emotions when implementing reappraisal. These insights could be leveraged to guide psychological treatments using cognitive techniques that rely on successful reappraisal use.
Description
Funding Information: Preparation of this article was supported by the postdoctoral research grants from the Special Research Fund (BOF) at Ghent University and the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) awarded to Jonas Everaert.
Date
2021
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Publisher
Research Projects
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Keywords
Reappraisal, Memory, Emotion Regulation, Cognitive Bias
Citation
Nieto, I, Koster, E H W & Everaert, J 2021, 'The role of emotional memory in reappraising negative self-referent thoughts', Cognitive Therapy and Research, vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 1141-1149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-021-10216-6