Effects of distraction and guided threat reappraisal on fear reduction during exposure-based treatments for specific fears

To test predictions derived from the emotional processing theory of fear reduction, claustrophobics (N=58) were randomized to one of four exposure conditions: (a) exposure with guided threat reappraisal, (b) exposure with a cognitive load distracter task, (c) exposure with both guided threat reappraisal and cognitive load distracter task and (d) exposure without guided threat reappraisal or cognitive load distracter task. We hypothesized that self-guided in vivo exposure would lead to less fear reduction if performed simultaneously with a cognitive load distracter task that severely taxes information processing resources. In contrast, we hypothesized that focusing on core threats during exposure would enhance fear reduction. The main findings were largely consistent with predictions. The cognitive load task (regardless of focus of available attention) had a detrimental effect on fear reduction, while guided threat reappraisal (regardless of cognitive load) had a facilitative effect. The greatest level of fear reduction and the lowest level of return of fear were observed in the exposure condition involving guided threat reappraisal without cognitive load. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Managing one's social identity: Successful and unsuccessful identity management

This work explores the motivational dynamics of social identity management. Following social identity theory, we hypothesized that a threat to a positive social identity elicits specific negative emotions (i.e., outgroup‐directed anger) and motivates identity management. Successful identity management restores a positive social identity and decreases outgroup‐directed anger. However, when a successful identity management is blocked (e.g., because of limited cognitive resources), identity management will be unsuccessful and outgroup‐directed anger will remain at a higher level. This effect of unsuccessful identity management on outgroup‐directed anger should be particularly strong for group members who highly value their group (i.e., high group‐based self‐esteem). A negative comparison outcome is discrepant with these group members' positive view of the ingroup, and therefore, unsuccessful identity management should especially elicit negative emotions (i.e., anger) towards the threatening outgroup. Two studies tested these predictions. Study 1 (N = 110) showed that participants' outgroup‐directed anger increased when threatened under cognitive load. Study 2 (N = 99) demonstrated that this was particularly true for participants high in group‐based self‐esteem. The results' implications for research on the motivational processes underlying social identity management are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attachment-related strategies during thought suppression: ironic rebounds and vulnerable self-representations

The authors conducted 2 studies of attachment-related variations in thought suppression. Participants were asked, or not asked, to suppress thoughts about a relationship breakup and then to perform a Stroop task under high or low cognitive load. The dependent variables were the rebound, of previously suppressed separation-related thoughts (Study 1) and the accessibility of self-traits (Study 2). Under low cognitive load, avoidant individuals did not show any rebound of separation-related thoughts and activated positive self-representations. Under high cognitive load, avoidant participants failed to suppress thoughts of separation and were more likely to activate negative self-representations. Attachment anxiety was associated with high activation of negative self-representations and unremitting separation-related thoughts. The results are discussed in terms of the hidden vulnerabilities of avoidant individuals.     

Organization of the Self-Concept and the Suppression of Self-Relevant Thoughts

The rebound effect associated with thought suppression has been found following attempts at suppressing both novel stimuli and stereotypical thoughts. However, research examining the suppression of self-relevant thoughts has been less successful in demonstrating the rebound effect. A potential factor that has not yet been fully explored in research on thought suppression is how different types of distracter thoughts may influence the ability to suppress unwanted thoughts. One type of distracter that people may use while attempting to suppress unwanted self-relevant thoughts is information related to other aspects of their lives. To the extent that these other aspects are more likely to be associated in memory with the unwanted thoughts, rebound should be more likely to occur. Thus, we expected and found that people lower in self-complexity (i.e., those with fewer self-aspects that are more interrelated with one another) revealed greater rebound following thought suppression that involved self-relevant distracting thoughts than did people greater in self-complexity. Implications of these findings for thought suppression, self-complexity, depression, and the experience of affect are discussed.     

Mortality salience and morality: thinking about death makes people less utilitarian

According to the dual-process model of moral judgment, utilitarian responses to moral conflict draw on limited cognitive resources. Terror Management Theory, in parallel, postulates that mortality salience mobilizes these resources to suppress thoughts of death out of focal attention. Consequently, we predicted that individuals under mortality salience would be less likely to give utilitarian responses to moral conflicts. Two experiments corroborated this hypothesis. Experiment 1 showed that utilitarian responses to non-lethal harm conflicts were less frequent when participants were reminded of their mortality. Experiment 2 showed that the detrimental effect of mortality salience on utilitarian conflict judgments was comparable to that of an extreme concurrent cognitive load. These findings raise the question of whether private judgment and public debate about controversial moral issues might be shaped by mortality salience effects, since these issues (e.g., assisted suicide) often involve matters of life and death.     

P50 sensory gating is related to performance on select tasks of cognitive inhibition

P50 suppression deficits have been documented in clinical and nonclinical populations, but the behavioral correlates of impaired auditory sensory gating remain poorly understood. In the present study, we examined the relationship between P50 gating and healthy adults’ performance on cognitive inhibition tasks. On the basis of load theory (Lavie, Hirst, de Fockert, & Viding, 2004), we predicted that a high perceptual load, a possible consequence of poor auditory P50 sensory gating, would have differential (i.e., positive vs. negative) effects on performance of cognitive inhibition tasks. A dissociation was observed such that P50 gating was negatively related to interference resolution on a Stroop task and positively related to response inhibition on a go/no-go task. Our findings support the idea that a high perceptual load may be beneficial to Stroop performance because of the reduced processing of distractors but detrimental to performance on the go/no-go task because of interference with stimulus discrimination.     

Unpacking cognitive reappraisal: goals, tactics, and outcomes

Studies of emotion regulation typically contrast two or more strategies (e.g., reappraisal vs. suppression) and ignore variation within each strategy. To address such variation, we focused on cognitive reappraisal and considered the effects of goals (i.e., what people are trying to achieve) and tactics (i.e., what people actually do) on outcomes (i.e., how affective responses change). To examine goals, we randomly assigned participants to either increase positive emotion or decrease negative emotion to a negative stimulus. To examine tactics, we categorized participants' reports of how they reappraised. To examine reappraisal outcomes, we measured experience and electrodermal responding. Findings indicated that (a) the goal of increasing positive emotion led to greater increases in positive affect and smaller decreases in skin conductance than the goal of decreasing negative emotion, and (b) use of the reality challenge tactic was associated with smaller increases in positive affect during reappraisal. These findings suggest that reappraisal can be implemented in the service of different emotion goals, using different tactics. Such differences are associated with different outcomes, and they should be considered in future research and applied attempts to maximize reappraisal success.     

Cognitive assessment of social anxiety: a comparison of self-report and thought listing methods

The goal of the present study was to compare 2 cognitive assessment methods for social anxiety: a thought listing and a self-report method. The focus of this study was on the convergent and divergent validity of these methods using a multi-trait multi-method approach. Furthermore, treatment sensitivity was explored. Fifty-eight patients with social phobia completed thought listings followed by 2 different social stress tasks before and after an exposure group treatment (n = 33), or following a waiting period (n = 25). One task consisted of speaking in front of 2 confederates while the other task involved initiating a conversation with an opposite-sex confederate. Two questionnaires measuring positive and negative self-statements regarding public speaking and social interactions were also completed. To compare the balance of positive and negative thoughts, the State of Mind ratio [positive thoughts/(positive+negative thoughts)] was calculated for both cognitive assessment methods. Results demonstrate that methods related to social interaction anxiety showed better convergent validity than methods related to public speaking anxiety; however, public speaking methods captured treatment effects better than methods related to social interaction anxiety. This study questions the common assumption that different cognitive assessment methods measure the same construct.     

Revealing negative thinking in recovered major depression: a preliminary investigation

Previous research suggests that formerly dysphoric individuals engage in effortful strategies (e.g., thought suppression) that may mask underlying depressive thinking. The addition of a cognitive load, such as recalling a 6-digit number, which interferes with effortful mental control, reveals depressive thinking in formerly dysphoric individuals. This preliminary study tested whether this effect of cognitive load on revealing negative thinking generalizes to formerly clinically depressed patients. Currently depressed patients, recovered depressed patients and never-depressed patients unscrambled sentences that could form either positive or negative statements, after random allocation to either cognitive load or no cognitive load conditions. The number of negative statements unscrambled was used as an index of negative thinking. Without a load, recovered depressed patients did not differ from never-depressed controls: both groups completed fewer negative statements than currently depressed patients. However, the cognitive load increased negative statements in the recovered depressed group, making them resemble the currently depressed group more than the never-depressed group. These preliminary findings extend previous demonstrations of cognitive load unmasking negative thinking in dysphoric students to a clinical population, suggesting that formerly depressed patients utilize effortful strategies to minimize the report of negative thinking, which is undermined by the addition of a cognitive load.     

工作记忆负荷、形状干扰对聋人与听力正常人注意捕获影响的眼动研究

通过记录和分析被试的行为和眼动指标,本研究试图探讨不同工作记忆负荷下,形状干扰对聋人与听力正常人不同视野位置上刺激信息捕获注意的异同。研究结果表明：（1）形状干扰刺激虽然没有影响被试视觉加工的认知绩效,但被试的眼动模式会由于工作记忆负荷的改变而改变,高工作记忆负荷时,有形状干扰的注视次数高于无形状干扰。（2）工作记忆负荷、视野位置影响被试视觉加工任务的完成,被试在不同视野位置的加工过程表现出不一致的眼动模式。（3）聋人视觉加工在高工作记忆负荷时存在一定的劣势,但其对不同视野位置的信息加工及形状干扰所产生的注意捕获效应与听力正常人一致。     

How to cope with "noise" in social dilemmas: the benefits of communication

Interactions in social life may be seriously affected by negative noise, whereby actual or perceived behavior is less cooperative than was intended (e.g., arriving late due to an unforeseen traffic jam). The present research examines whether negative noise exerts detrimental effects on impressions and cooperation and whether such effects could be reduced by communication. Consistent with hypotheses, Study 1 revealed that negative noise exerts detrimental effects on both impressions of partners' benign intent and cooperation and that these detrimental effects could be effectively reduced by communication about noise. Study 2 replicated both findings but only for individuals with low trust. Mediation analysis revealed that impressions of benign intent and prosocial interaction goals underlie the positive effects of communication on cooperation.     

“Meaningful” social inferences: Effects of implicit theories on inferential processes

Perceivers’ shared theories about the social world have long featured prominently in social inference research. Here, we investigate how fundamental differences in such theories influence basic inferential processes. Past work has typically shown that integrating multiple interpretations of behavior during social inference requires cognitive resources. However, three studies that measured or manipulated people’s beliefs about the stable versus dynamic nature of human attributes (i.e., their entity vs. incremental theory, respectively) qualify these past findings. Results revealed that, when interpreting others’ actions, perceivers’ theories selectively facilitate the consideration of interpretations that are especially theory-relevant. While experiencing cognitive load, entity theorists continued to incorporate information about stable dispositions (but not about dynamic social situations) in their social inferences, whereas incremental theorists continued to incorporate information about dynamic social situations (but not about stable traits). Implications of these results for how perceivers find meaning in behavior are discussed.     

Behavioral rebound following stereotype suppression

Attempts to suppress stereotypes have often been found to result in an increased accessibility of these stereotypes. According to thought suppression literature together with research on prime‐to‐behavior effects, we hypothesized that suppression of stereotype can lead people to subsequently behave in accordance with its content and that these effects are stronger after suppression (rebound) than after a classical priming condition (i.e., no‐suppression condition). Experiment 1 showed that suppression of the stereotype of sportsmen (associated with poor math performance) but not of Italian men (not related to math performance) led participants to subsequently perform worse on a calculus task in comparison to non‐suppressors. These effects were replicated in a second experiment with another stereotype (elderly) and another behavior that does not require self‐regulation (walking speed): Suppressors walked slower than non‐suppressors. These findings are considered in the context of mental control and social stereotyping. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The perils of double consciousness: The role of thought suppression in stereotype threat

The goal of the present research is to demonstrate, and then alleviate, the role of thought suppression in depressing women’s math performance under stereotype threat. We hypothesize that when taking a math test, women (but not men) attempt to suppress thoughts of the math-related gender stereotype. Suppression leads to underperformance when it uses up cognitive resources. In Study 1, women underperform on a math test and show postsuppressional rebound of the stereotype when cognitive resources are reduced. In Study 2, women suppress the stereotype after a math test begins, but show rebound when the test is complete. In Study 3, making the stereotype irrelevant to the test improves performance and reduces postsuppressional rebound. In Studies 4 and 5, we test a strategy women can use to make suppression easier, and show that it restores math performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The motivational and emotional consequences of considering positive or negative possibilities for an upcoming event.

The hypothesis that attention to negative possibilities for an upcoming event can have advantages for performance in comparison with a more optimistic approach was examined in 2 studies. Focus of attention to positive or negative possibilities for a social interaction was manipulated for Ss previously identified as optimists or defensive pessimists in the social domain. In Study 1, negatively focused defensive pessimists performed better in their conversations than positively focused defensive pessimists on several dimensions (e.g., talk time, perceived effort, and sociability). Optimists' behavior was unaffected by the focus manipulation. However, all negatively focused Ss felt worse after their conversations than did positively focused subjects. Study 2 examined the cognitive process by which a negative focus may lead to positive behaviors. Some pessimists may benefit from an initial negative focus that is not accompanied by lowered expectations and that actually facilitates positive thoughts about the self.     

情绪调节在特质与情绪间中介效应模型的年龄差异

研究采用EPQ、ERQ及PANAS收集了青年、中年及老年三个年龄组共870份有效数据, 分析了认知重评和表情抑制在外倾和神经质与正负情绪之间中介效应及发展模型差异。主要结果：(1)外倾−正情绪, 神经质−负情绪之间存在高相关。(2)与青年组和老年组比, 中年组的神经质与负情绪的相关最弱。(3)三个年龄组的认知重评在神经质与负情绪之间都存在显著的中介效应, 中介效应值在中年组为最强。(4) 表情抑制在外倾与正负情绪之间显著的中介效应仅出现在中年组。研究分析, 认知重评和表情抑制是减弱特质−情绪之间密切度的有效调节机制。     

How socioemotional setting modulates late-stage conflict resolution processes in the lateral prefrontal cortex

The goal-directed control of behaviour critically depends on emotional regulation and constitutes the basis of mental well-being and social interactions. Within a socioemotional setting, it is necessary to prioritize effectively the relevant emotional information over interfering irrelevant emotional information to orchestrate cognitive resources and achieve appropriate behavior. Currently, it is elusive whether and how different socioemotional stimulus dimensions modulate cognitive control and conflict resolution. Theoretical considerations suggest that interference effects are less detrimental when conflicting emotional information is presented within a “positive socioemotional setting” compared with a “negative socioemotional setting.” Using event-related potentials (ERPs) and source localization methods, we examined the basic system neurophysiological mechanisms and functional neuroanatomical structures associated with interactive effects of different interfering facial, socioemotional stimulus dimensions on conflict resolution. We account for interactive effects of different interfering socioemotional stimulus dimensions on conflict resolution, i.e., we show how the socioemotional valence modulates cognitive control (conflict processing). The data show that conflicts are stronger and more difficult to resolve in a negative emotional task-relevant setting than in a positive emotional task-relevant setting, where incongruent information barely induced conflicts. The degree of emotional conflict critically depends on the contextual emotional valence (positive or negative) in which this conflict occurs. The neurophysiological data show that these modulations were only reflected by late-stage conflict resolution processes associated with the middle (MFG) and superior frontal gyrus (SFG). Attentional selection processes and early-stage conflict monitoring do not seem to be modulated by interactive effects of different interfering socioemotional stimulus dimensions on conflict resolution.     

Cancer and the threat of death: the cognitive dynamics of death-thought suppression and its impact on behavioral health intentions

Five studies examined the cognitive association between thoughts of cancer and thoughts of death and their implication for screening intentions. Study 1 found that explicit contemplation of cancer did not increase death-thought accessibility. In support of the hypothesis that this reflects suppression of death-related thoughts, Study 2 found that individuals who thought about cancer exhibited elevated death-thought accessibility under high cognitive load, and Study 3 demonstrated that subliminal primes of the word cancer led to increased death-thought accessibility. Study 4 revealed lower levels of death-thought accessibility when perceived vulnerability to cancer was high, once again suggesting suppression of death-related thoughts in response to conscious threats associated with cancer. Study 5 extended the analysis by finding that after cancer salience, high cognitive load, which presumably disrupts suppression of the association between cancer and death, decreased cancer-related self-exam intentions. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding terror management, priming and suppression, and responses to cancer are discussed.     

Suppression of obsession-like thoughts in nonclinical individuals: impact on thought frequency, appraisal and mood state

Wegner's (1994, Psychological Review, 101, 34-52) research on the paradoxical effect of thought suppression has been incorporated into contemporary cognitive-behavioural models of obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, findings on the effects of thought suppression on thought frequency have been inconsistent and few studies have actually examined the suppression of thoughts that are obsessional in nature. In the present study 219 nonclinical participants were randomly assigned to suppress or not suppress a neutral, obsessional or positive thought during an initial monitoring interval. In a second thought monitoring interval, all participants received instructions not to suppress their target thought. No paradoxical effect of suppression on frequency was observed for any type of thought, although suppression of obsessional thoughts was associated with greater subsequent discomfort and a more negative mood state than suppression of positive or neutral target thoughts.