Emotional regulation: top-down cognitive processes on emotional responses

Question 1

What is Derrybery and Reed’s (2002) theory on attention?

Answer 1

> There is a voluntary attention system: attention control

• to maintain focus
• to shift attention

> Differences in ability to control attention explain attention bias

Question 2

What did Derryberry and Reed find in their 2002 study on individual differences in control attention and people with anxiety?

Answer 2

Attention control helps limit impact of threatening information:
- inter-individual differences in self-reported attention controllability moderated the extent to which anxious people attended towards threat stimuli in a dot probe experiment

• anxious people with high attention control were better at disengaging from threat stimuli (vs. people with low attention control)
• > less or no attention bias

Question 3

Which evidence supports the findings of Derryberry and Reed (2002)?

Answer 3

People exposed to trauma but with high attention control seem to develop less PTSD symptoms
vs. people with low attention control

Question 4

Is the ability to control attention static?

Why?

Answer 4

No
- various factors play a role -> intra-individual differences

• compensation for poor control when there is an important goal to focus on

Question 5

What is Michael Eysenck’s view on the ability to compensate for poor control of attention (2007)?

Answer 5

It has its limits

Question 6

Why are the limits in one’s ability to compensate for poor control of attention relevant for anxious people?

Answer 6

In situations of exceptionally demanding activities and heavily loaded cognitive ressources, or poor motivation to focus
-> people are more easily distracted by irrelevant thoughts

Question 7

What did Berggren and colleagues find on the limits of anxious people to compensate for poor control of attention?

Answer 7

Visual search task, manipulating the cognitive load
- no cognitive load condition: no difference between participants with high and low anxiety

• high cognitive load affected those with high anxiety, not those with low anxiety

Question 8

How did Bernstein and Zvielli (2014) train people to enhance attention control?

Answer 8

Attention feedback awareness and control training (A-FACT)
- standard dot probe -> measure attention bias

> Told participants to balance attention between images, without being influenced by content

> To measure avoidance: showed anxiety-eliciting clips

• participants could control presentation length
• > index emotional recovery after a stressor

> Dot probe administered after training

Question 9

What did Berstein and Zvielli (2014) find in their study on training attention control?

Answer 9

Training improved attention control
- ability to disengage from threatening images

• participants showed less avoidance and quicker recovery

=> Training attention control might reduce the emotional impact of information they are exposed to

Question 10

How can people control emotional experiences?

Answer 10

1. Cognitive reappraisal
2. Response-focused strategies
   - manage feelings (e.g. relaxation techniques)
3. Expressive suppression
   - hide emotional impact

Question 11

What is cognitive reappraisal?

Answer 11

Transform negative meaning and reduce emotional impact
-> antecedent focused (on the causes)

• it is common
• inter-individual differences in use of suppression or reappraisal to manage negative emotions

Question 12

What can reappraisal sometimes depend on (Stemmler, 1997)?

Answer 12

Information given to us

Stemmler:

• after new information was given to participants, they were able to reappraise a situation
• > reduced their anger at a set of circumstances
• were given excuses for experimenter’s behaviour (provocation)
• > participants reported less physiological response and less anger

Question 13

What did Mauss and colleagues (2007) show regarding the individual differences in the ability to use reappraisal?

Answer 13

Replication of Stemmler’s experiment
- individual differences in ability to use reappraisal influenced the extent to which participants could use excuses for experimenter’s behaviour (provocation) to down-regulate their physiological response

Question 14

Why can reappraisal training serve people with emotional disorders?

Answer 14

Range of emotional disorders associated with inability to reappraise situations

Question 15

What does a training in the ability to reappraise consist of?

Answer 15

1. Identify negative thought
2. Evaluate the appraisal’s validity
3. Challenge negative thought (might not be true)
4. Re-evaluate the probability that appraisal is correct
   - > improve capacity to regulate the emotional response to negative situations

Question 16

What is the purpose and process of extinction?

Answer 16

Down-regulating emotional direct experiences

• repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus

Question 17

Is the process of extinction similarly effective for everyone?

Answer 17

No, there are individual differences in the extent and speed with which fear extinguishes

Question 18

How does extinction reduce fear?

Answer 18

> Excitatory (fear-inducing) association remains intact after extinction, but its inhibited
- by the new association conditioned stimulus - no unconditioned stimulus, developed through extinction process

> After extinction, these 2 associations compete with one another

-> return of the fear depends on the inhibition of CS-US association

Question 19

How is extinction context-dependent?

Answer 19

If extinction takes place in different context from original conditioning context, return to this original context or some other context after extinction might evoke return of fear

Question 20

How did Vansteenwegan and colleagues (2007) show that extinction is context-dependent?

Answer 20

> Participants had specific phobia for spiders

> Context 1: spider in kitchen
- extinction process -> fear reduced

> Context 2: spider in bedroom
-> fear returns

-> Change of context evoked return of fear
-> the learning that had taken place during extinction was context-dependent
<=> rather than learning that spiders aren’t dangerous, participants seemed to have learned that spiders in kitchens aren’t dangerous

Question 21

What are the implications of the context-dependent nature of extinction?

Answer 21

Extinction learning underlies CBT for anxiety disorders

- being context-dependent, it might explain clinical relapse

Question 22

How can extinction learning be used for mental disorders?

Answer 22

> Extinction occurs in everyday life

> Prevents fear from becoming pathological

> Individual differences in extinction learning might influence emergence of anxiety disorders (e.g. PTSD)

• > extinction learning to regulate one’s emotional responses to aversive experiences
• potential long term consequences on a person’s mental health

Question 23

How did Lommen and colleagues (2013) use extinction learning for PTSD?
What were their results?

Answer 23

> Soldiers prior to deployment went through fear-conditioning and extinction procedure

> Upon return: test for PTSD symptoms (clinical interviews)

-> PTSD cases were those of soldiers who had difficulty extinguishing their fear prior to deployment

Question 24

What is memory re-scripting?

Answer 24

Regulating emotion by altering memories post-event

• intentional
• top-down

Question 25

Who developed memory re-scripting?

Answer 25

> Pierre Janet: imagery substitution with hysterical patients (1919)

> Beck: modifying visual cognitions (mental images) of negative experiences can modify the emotions they provoke

Question 26

What is the process of memory re-scripting?

Answer 26

1. Activate memory of event
2. Identify feelings, emotions, thoughts evoked
3. Re-script: frame in positive or neutral context
   - or by altering event in memory so consequences are less negative

Question 27

How did Dibbets (2011) use memory re-scripting?

Answer 27

To enhance extinction learning
- negative event presented in different contexts

• participants were given re-scripting instructions
• > less return of fear when conditioned stimulus shown in original context
  vs. participants with no re-scripting instructions

=> Re-scripting the original conditions memory AND devaluating the unconditioned stimulus seems to prevent a return of fear

Question 28

What are the 3 functions of re-scripting?

Answer 28

1. Update and correct memories
2. Explore inhibited responses
3. Explore trauma-related beliefs

Question 29

What are the two types of imagery re-scripting presented by Holmes and colleagues (2007)?

Answer 29

1. Type A:
   - modification of memory and associated emotions and beliefs
2. Type B
   - regulating negative emotions about oneself
   - by constructing a new positive image about one’s self

Question 30

How can imagery re-scripting be used?

Answer 30

> In PTSD
- deal with emotional response of traumatic event

> In ordinary life

• deal with negative experiences we encounter daily, that evoke a significant emotional response
• > modify and re-script our memory of these events to make them more positive or benign