the effect of cognitive reappraisal on long-term emotional experience and emotional memory

Journal of Neuropsychology (2013)

© 2013 The British Psychological Society

www.wileyonlinelibrary.com

The effect of cognitive reappraisal on long-termemotional experience and emotional memory

Hyeon Min Ahn1, Shin Ah Kim1, In Jae Hwang2, Ji Woon Jeong2,Hyun Taek Kim2, Stephan Hamann3 and Sang Hee Kim1*1Department of Brain Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea2Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea3Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

One’s ability to properly regulate emotion is critical to psychological and physical

well-being. Among various strategies to regulate emotion, cognitive reappraisal has been

shown to modulate both emotional experience and emotional memory. However, most

studies of reappraisal have focused on reappraisal of negative situations, with reappraisal

of positive emotion receiving considerably less attention. In addition, the effects of

reappraisal on emotional reactions to stimuli are typically only assessed either

immediately or after a short delay, and it remains unclear whether reappraisal effects

persist over longer time periods. We investigated the effect of cognitive reappraisal on

emotional reactions and long-term episodic memory for positive and negative stimuli.

Men and women viewed emotionally negative, positive, and neutral pictures while they

were instructed to either increase, decrease, or maintain the initial emotional reactions

elicited by the pictures. Subjective ratings of emotional valence and arousal were assessed

during the regulation task and again after 1 week. Memory for the pictures was assessed

with free recall. Results indicated that pictures accompanied by instructions to increase

emotionwere better recalled than pictures reappraised to decrease emotion.Modulation

of emotional arousal elicited by stimuli persisted over aweek, but this effectwas observed

only formen. These findings suggest that cognitive reappraisal can have long-lasting effects

on emotional reactions to stimuli. However, the sex differences observed for the effects

of reappraisal on emotional reactions highlight the importance of considering individual

differences in the effects of regulation.

The ability to properly regulate emotion is critical to psychological well-being andimpairment in emotion regulation has been linked to various psychological and physical

illnesses (Bonnano, Papa, Lalande, Westphal, & Coifman, 2004; Davidson, Putnam, &

Larson, 2000). A growing body of research recently has shown that cognitively

reinterpreting the emotionalmeaning of potentially emotional information (i.e., cognitive

reappraisal) modulates emotional responses in various domains, including subjective

experience, psychophysiological reactivity, and neural responses (Buhle et al., 2013;

Jackson, Malmstadt, Larson, & Davidson, 2000; Kim & Hamann, 2007, 2012; Ochsner,

Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002; Ray, McRae, Ochsner, & Gross, 2010; Sheppes, Catran, &Meiran, 2009). Because emotional arousal affects a variety of cognitive processes such as

attention (Pessoa, 2009; Vuilleumier, 2005), memory (Bradley, Greenwald, Petry, & Lang,

*Correspondence should be addressed to Sang Hee Kim, Science Library #604B, Department of Brain and CognitiveEngineering, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 136-701, Korea (email: [email protected]).

DOI:10.1111/jnp.12035

1

1992; Cahill & McGaugh, 1995), and decision-making (Bechara & Damasio, 1997; Quartz,

2009), modulation of arousal by cognitive reappraisal can potentially modulate each of

these cognitive processes.

Emotional arousal canpowerfully enhance episodicmemory (Hamann, 2001; Reisberg& Heuer, 1992). Because of the strong relationship between emotional arousal and

memory, variables that modulate emotional arousal should also be expected to modulate

memory for emotional stimuli (Bradley et al., 1992; Cahill & McGaugh, 1998; Hamann,

Ely, Grafton, & Kilts, 1999). In line with this prediction, a recent study investigating

consequences of cognitive reappraisal found that reappraisal modulated emotional

memory on a retrieval test given after a 1 week delay but not in a similar test given

immediately after a reappraisal task. Interestingly, thismodulatory effect was observed for

men but not for women (Kim & Hamann, 2012).The majority of studies of cognitive reappraisal have focused on reappraisal of

negative situations, with reappraisal of positive emotion receiving considerably less

attention.Thus,howcognitive reappraisalmight influenceemotional episodicmemory for

positive stimuli and events has remained unclear. Previous neuroimaging studies of

emotion regulation suggested that partially dissociable neural systems are involved in

reappraising positive and negative information (Kim & Hamann, 2007; Mak, Hu, Zhang,

Xiao, & Lee, 2009). Such differences in the neural correlates of emotion regulation suggest

that reappraisal may have different effects as a function of positive versus negativeemotional valence. In addition to the effect of reappraisal on episodic memory, one of the

key questions in emotion regulation research is whether reappraisal has both immediate

and long-term effects on emotional reactions. This question, however, has received little

attention to date. Given that reappraisal has immediate effects on emotional reactions and

also alters memory for emotional stimuli, reappraisal may also have long-term effects on

emotional reactions.

The goal of the current study was to assess the long-term effects of cognitive

reappraisal of positive and negative emotions on subsequent episodic memory andsubjective emotional reactions to reappraised stimuli. Healthy young men and women

viewed a series of positive, negative, and neutral pictures, and were instructed to

reappraise the emotional meaning of each image in order to increase or decrease the

emotion reactions elicited by thepicture. Episodicmemory for thepresentedpictureswas

later assessedwith a free recall test. Participants’ emotional reactions to the pictures were

assessed by subjective ratings of emotional arousal and valence, both immediately during

the regulation task and after a 1-week delay. We predicted that reappraisal to increase

emotion would enhance memory performance and reappraisal to decrease emotionwould decrease memory performance, based on the well-established link between

emotional arousal during encoding and subsequent episodic memory. We also predicted

that cognitive reappraisal would have long-term effects on participants’ reactions to

reappraised stimuli, such that reappraisal to increase or decrease emotion would be

associated with increased or decreased emotional reactions to reappraised stimuli.

Method

Participants

Thirty-four healthy right-handed college students (17 females; 24.76 � 1.79 years, 17

males; 20.76 � 1.82 years) participated in this study. Participants reported no past or

current diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric disorders. All participants gave written

2 Hyeon Min Ahn et al.

informed consent and the study procedure was approved by the Institutional Review

Board. Participants were monetarily compensated for their time.

Materials and regulation task

Based on normative ratings of valence (1 = unpleasant, 3 = neutral, 7 = pleasant) and

arousal (1 = not arousing, 3 = moderately arousing, 7 = strongly arousing), each of

66 negative (valence M = 2.59, SD = 1.05; arousal M = 4.60, SD = 1.42), positive

(valence M = 5.29, SD = 1.19; arousal M = 4.60, SD = 1.39), and neutral pictures

(valence M = 4.08, SD = 1.05; arousal M = 3.65, SD = 1.35) were selected from an

in-house normed affective picture set. Pictures in each emotional category were divided

into three sets of 22 pictures with matching levels of emotional valence and arousal andassigned to one of the three reappraisal conditions: Increase, Decrease, or Watch

condition. The assignment of picture set in each reappraisal condition was counterbal-

anced across the participants. In the Watch condition, participants were asked to

experience whatever feelings the pictures might elicit in them and be aware of their

feelings without an attempt to change their feelings in anyway. In the Increase condition,

participants were asked to try to increase the intensity of the emotions that the pictures

might elicit in them. To accomplish this, theywere asked to associate themselveswith the

scenes depicted in the pictures (e.g., imagining themselves being the target of the violentact). In the Decrease condition, participants were asked to attempt to decrease the

intensity of the emotions that the pictures might elicit in them. They were asked to

personally dissociate themselves from the content depicted in the pictures (e.g.,

imagining themselves being far from the violent act depicted in the scene). Participants

were asked not to try to generate the opposite emotion (e.g., positive emotion for a

negative picture) to accomplish this task. For all regulation conditions, participants were

asked to maintain their attention and gaze to each picture and not to look away during

picture presentation.

Procedure

Upon arrival, participants were told that the study was to examine the relation between

cognitive reappraisal and emotional experience. The experiment was run on SuperLab

software (Cedrus, San Pedro, CA, USA). After completing an informed consent form,

participants sat ~65 cm directly in front of a 19-inch computer monitor (visual angle:

horizontal = 19°, vertical = 14.5°). Before performing the reappraisal task, participantshad a practice session with 18 pictures that were never presented in elsewhere in the

experiment. The practice task was run in the same manner as the real task. Each task trial

began with an instruction cue indicating Increase (↑), Decrease (↓), or Watch (–)condition, appearing on the screen for 2 s, followed by a picture for 4 s during which

participants were engaged in a given task. A picture of a rating scale then appearedwhere

participants rated with a button press the level of valence (1 = unpleasant, 3 = neutral,

5 = pleasant) and arousal (1 = not or weakly arousing, 3 = moderately arousing,

5 = strongly arousing) for 1.5 s each. A fixation cross was then presented for 4 s duringwhich participants rested (Figure 1). The total of 198 trials was divided into four blocks

with an inter-block break of 5 min. The order of the trials was pseudorandomly

determined so that nomore than three trials of the same valance or regulation instructions

were consecutively presented.

Cognitive reappraisal & emotional memory 3

After the regulation task, participants completed a surprise free recall test for 10 min.

For the free recall task, participants were asked to describe the pictures that they saw

during the regulation task. They were encouraged to describe as many pictures as they

could recall, in as much detail as possible, regardless of the order in which they had been

presented presentation. They were also asked to specify which regulation cue (i.e.,

increase, decrease or watch) was associated with each picture described. They were told

that they could omit the cue information if they failed to recollect any specific cueinformation. Finally, the participants were excused and were reminded of their return

session scheduled for 1 week later. They were asked not to discuss the experiment with

anyone until they had completed their participation in the study.

When participants returned in 1 week, they again completed a free recall test for the

previously viewed stimuli for 10 min. The participants then viewed each of the 198

pictures they had seen initially during the regulation task and rated them on a 7-point

Likert scale according to the level of emotional arousal (1 = not arousing, 3 = moder-

ately arousing, 7 = strongly arousing) and valence (1 = unpleasant, 3 = neutral,7 = pleasant) each picture elicited. For this rating task, two pseudorandomly ordered

picture lists were created and were administered in a counterbalanced manner across

participants in order toprevent possible order effects. Finally, participantswere debriefed

and encouraged to ask any questions that they might have regarding the study and were

thanked for their participation and excused.

Data reduction and analysesFree recall responses were scored as correct if a participant’s descriptions matched one

specific picture that had been presented during the task. Two experimenters indepen-

dently scored all recall responses and the percentage agreement in scoring of responses

between the two judges was over 95%. Responses that could not be matched to a single

picture by both judges were scored as incorrect. The percentage of correctly recalled

pictures was calculated for each condition. Statistical analyses were conducted in SPSS

12.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and an alpha level of .05 was applied for all statistical

tests. The means and standard deviations for all measures are presented in Tables 1–3.

Results

Online ratings of valence

A 3 (regulation: decrease, watch, increase) 9 2 (sex) ANOVA was conducted onsubjective ratings of valence obtained during the emotion regulation task, separately for

each category of emotions. Overall results are presented in Table 1 and Figure 2.

Figure 1. Illustrative trial of the emotion regulation task.


Negative emotion

A significantmain effect of regulationwas found, F(2, 64) = 32.18, p < .0001,g2 = .50. A

follow-up contrast indicated that participants reported feeling more negative emotion

during the increase condition than the watch, F(1, 32) = 46.69, p < .0001, g2 = .59, or

the decrease condition, F(1, 32) = 36.99, p < .0001,g2 = .54, yielding a significant linear

trend across increase, watch, and decrease conditions (p < .0001). There was nosignificant difference between thewatch and decrease conditions, F(1, 32) = 1.03,ns. No

main effect of sex, F(1, 32) = 0.02, ns, or Regulation 9 Sex interaction, F(2, 64) = 1.11,

ns, were found.

Positive emotion

We found a significantmain effect of regulation, F(2, 64) = 18.38,p < .0001,g2 = .365. A

simple contrast revealed that participants reported feeling more positive emotion during

Table 1. Ratings of emotional arousal and valence during the emotion regulation task

Emotion Sex

Decrease Watch Increase

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

Online rating – valence Negative Men 1.90 .61 1.92 .60 1.53 .50

Women 1.97 .62 1.85 .64 2.94 .50

Neutral Men 2.88 .39 3.03 .42 3.11 .46

Women 2.84 .49 3.03 .42 1.44 .62

Positive Men 3.57 .45 3.65 .50 4.05 .63

Women 3.35 .51 3.65 .40 3.98 .72

Online rating – arousal Negative Men 3.25 .78 3.32 .63 3.29 .50

Women 3.23 .78 3.27 .67 3.61 .80

Neutral Men 2.71 .57 2.80 .56 3.57 .67

Women 2.58 .61 2.60 .51 3.19 .72

Positive Men 2.90 .68 3.09 .56 3.46 .58

Women 2.78 .55 3.00 .67 3.48 .80

Table 2. Memory measures by emotion regulation, emotion, and sex

Emotion Sex



Immediate free recall (%) Negative Men 12.56 6.65 14.43 11.94 15.24 6.99

Women 10.42 7.14 8.82 7.62 13.10 10.40

Neutral Men 9.35 7.61 8.02 6.33 9.35 4.94

Women 15.77 8.67 14.17 8.93 16.04 5.59

Positive Men 9.89 6.86 14.7 9.57 14.7 7.62

Women 11.76 6.82 11.76 8.51 13.36 7.09

Delayed free recall (%) Negative Men 7.21 5.34 9.09 7.00 9.35 5.67

Women 7.75 5.02 9.09 6.42 10.16 7.79

Neutral Men 5.34 6.67 4.27 4.39 5.34 5.38

Women 6.95 5.35 5.88 4.17 9.09 5.33

Positive Men 5.88 5.96 6.41 5.80 8.02 5.45

Women 5.88 4.75 8.55 5.30 12.29 6.58


the increase condition than the watch, F(1, 32) = 21.65, p < .0001 g2 = .40, or the

decrease, F(1, 32) = 21.37, p < .0001, g2 = .40, condition. Participants also felt more

positive emotion during the watch condition than the decrease condition, F(1,

32) = 6.80, p < .05 g2 = .18, yielding a significant linear trend across increase, watch,

and decrease conditions (p < .0001). No main effect of sex, F(1, 32) = 0.37, ns, or

Regulation 9 Sex interaction, F(2, 64) = 0.73, ns, was found.

Neutral emotion

We found a significant main effect of regulation, F(2, 64) = 5.54, p < .01, g2 = .15. A

simple contrast revealed that participants reported feeling more negative emotion during

the decrease condition than the increase, F(1, 32) = 6.31, p < .05,g2 = .17, or thewatch

condition, F(1, 32) = 12.27, p < .0001,g2 = .28, yielding a significant linear trend across

increase, watch, and decrease conditions (p < .0001). There was no significant

difference between the watch and increase conditions, F(1, 32) = 0.017, ns. No main

effect of sex, F(1, 32) = 0.24, ns, or Regulation 9 Sex interaction, F(2, 64) = 1.16, ns,was found.

Table 3. One-week delayed ratings of emotional arousal and valence

Emotion Sex



One-week delayed rating – valence Negative Men 2.54 .69 2.50 .62 2.46 .69

Women 2.18 .52 2.24 .53 2.22 .61

Neutral Men 4.08 .35 4.02 .31 4.00 .31

Women 3.86 .31 3.91 .32 3.87 .39

Positive Men 5.14 .52 5.05 .54 5.07 .53

Women 5.04 .71 5.05 .55 5.05 .66

One-week delayed rating – arousal Negative Men 4.53 1.06 4.63 .99 4.85 1.04

Women 4.85 .88 4.71 .81 4.81 .82

Neutral Men 3.38 1.05 3.26 1.09 3.32 1.01

Women 3.08 .81 3.13 .91 3.05 .89

Positive Men 4.06 .88 4.11 .86 4.05 1.07

Women 3.72 .82 3.77 .86 3.95 .83

(a) (b)

Figure 2. Mean online valence and arousal ratings across each emotion and regulation condition

(D = decrease; W = watch; I = increase). Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. *p < .05.


Online ratings of arousal

A 3 (regulation: decrease, watch, increase) 9 2 (sex) ANOVA was conducted on

subjective ratings of emotional arousal obtained during the emotion regulation task,

separately for each category of emotions. Overall results are presented in Table 1 andFigure 2.

Negative emotion

A significantmain effect of regulationwas found, F(2, 64) = 16.54, p < .0001,g2 = .34. A

follow-up contrast revealed that participants reported increased arousal for negative

pictures during the increase condition than the watch condition, F(1, 32) = 21.85,

p < .0001, g2 = .41, or the decrease condition, F(1, 32) = 20.05, p < .0001, g2 = .39,yielding a significant linear trend across increase, watch, and decrease conditions

(p < .0001). However, there was no significant difference in reported arousal between

the watch and decrease conditions, F(1, 32) = 1.03, ns. No main effect of sex, F(1,

32) = 0.00, ns, or Regulation 9 Sex interaction, F(2, 64) = 0.24, ns, was found.

Positive emotion

We found a significant main effect of regulation, F(2, 64) = 45.23 p < .0001, g2 = .59. Asimple contrast revealed that participants reported increased arousal during the increase

condition than the watch condition, F(1, 32) = 46.51, p < .0001, g2 = .59, or the

decrease condition, F(1, 32) = 58.37, p < .0001, g2 = .65. Participants reported

decreased arousal during the decrease condition than the watch condition, F(1,

32) = 13.91, p < .005, g2 = .30, yielding a significant linear trend across increase,

watch, and decrease conditions (p < .0001). Nomain effect of sex, F(1, 32) = 0.09, ns, or

Regulation 9 Sex interaction, F(2, 64) = 0.55, ns, was found.

Neutral emotion

A significant main effect of regulation was found, F(2, 64) = 43.69, p < .0001, g2 = .577.

A follow-up contrast indicated that participants reported increased arousal during the

increase condition relative to both the watch condition, F(1, 32) = 48.79, p < .0001,

g2 = .604, and the decrease condition, F(1, 32) = 58.78, p < .0001,g2 = .648, yielding a

significant linear trend across increase, watch, and decrease conditions (p < .0001).

There was no significant difference between watch and decrease condition, F(1,32) = 0.96, ns. No main effect of sex, F(1, 32) = 0.59, ns, or Regulation 9 Sex

interaction, F(2, 64) = 0.34, ns, was found.

Immediate free recall

Overall free recall results are presented in Table 2. We conducted a 3 (emotion: positive,

neutral, negative) 9 3 (regulation: decrease, watch, increase) 9 2 (sex) ANOVA on

immediate free recall. Results indicated significant main effects of emotion, F(2,64) = 8.12, p < .005, g2 = .20, and regulation, F(2, 64) = 5.06, p < .01, g2 = .14. A

simple contrast on emotion revealed that negative, F(1, 32) = 9.70, p < .005, g2 = .23,

and positive pictures, F(1, 32) = 13.11, p < .005, g2 = .29, were recalled better than

neutral pictures. There was no significant difference between positive and negative

pictures, F(1, 32) = 0.10, ns. A simple contrast on regulation indicated that participants


recalled more pictures from the increase condition than the decrease condition, F(1,

32) = 15.54, p < .0001, g2 = .33, yielding a significant linear trend across increase,

watch, and decrease conditions, F(1, 32) = 15.54, p < .0001, g2 = .33 (Figure 3a). No

statistical differences were found between the increase and watch conditions, F(1,32) = 2.69, ns, and between the decrease and watch conditions, F(1, 32) = 1.72, ns. No

main effect of sex, F(1, 32) = 0.32, ns, or interaction effects (Fs < 2.44, ns) were

observed.

One-week delayed free recall

A 3 9 3 9 2 ANOVA was conducted on 1-week delayed free recall with factors of

emotion, regulation, and sex. We found significant main effects of emotion, F(2,64) = 7.60, p < .005, g2 = .19, and regulation, F(2, 64) = 6.43, p < .005, g2 = .17.

Follow-up contrast on emotion indicated that participants recalled negative pictures, F(1,

32) = 12.72, p < .005, g2 = .28, or positive pictures, F(1, 32) = 7.49, p < .05, g2 = .19,

more than neutral pictures. There was no significant difference between positive and

negative pictures, F(1, 32) = 1.84 ns. A simple contrast on regulation revealed that more

pictures were recalled from the increase condition than the watch condition, F(1,

32) = 6.91, p < .05, g2 = .18, and than the decrease condition, F(1, 32) = 11.04,

p < .005, g2 = .26 (Figure 3b), yielding a significant linear trend across increase, watch,anddecrease conditions (p < .005).No significant differencewas foundbetweenpictures

in the watch and decrease conditions, F(1, 32) = 0.95, ns. No main effect of sex, F(1,

32) = 2.57, ns, or interaction effects (Fs < 1.28, ns) were found.

Free recall of regulation instruction

Participants’ correct recall of regulation instructions associatedwith recalled pictureswas

very low. The overall level of correct instructional recall assessed during immediate freerecall was 4.5%, corresponding approximately to recall of one regulation cue per

condition. Cue recall was even lower for delayed recall, at ~2%.

One-week delayed ratings of emotional valence

A 3 (regulation: decrease, watch, increase) 9 2 (sex) ANOVA was conducted separately

for each category of emotions on subjective ratings of valence obtained in 1 week of

(a) (b)

Figure 3. Mean immediate and free recall scores for each regulation conditions (D = decrease;

W = watch; I = increase). Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. *p < .05.


regulation task. Overall results of 1 week delayed emotional valence ratings are presented

in Table 3.

Negative emotion

There was no significant main effect of regulation, F(2, 64) = 0.22, ns, or sex, F(1,

32) = 1.92,ns. No interaction effect of Regulation 9 Sex, F(2, 64) = 1.18, ns, was found.

Positive emotion

We found no significant main effect of regulation, F(2, 64) = 0.27, ns, or sex, F(1,

32) = 0.033, ns. No interaction effect of Regulation 9 Sex, F(2, 64) = 0.40, ns, wasfound.

Neutral emotion


32) = 0.11,ns. No interaction effect of Regulation 9 Sex, F(2, 64) = 0.57, ns, was found.

One-week delayed ratings of emotional arousal

A 3 (regulation: decrease, watch, increase) 9 2 (sex) ANOVA was conducted separately

for each category of emotion on subjective ratings of arousal in the 1 week delayed

emotional arousal ratings task. Overall results are presented in Figure 4a,b.

Negative emotion

A significant main effect of regulation, F(2, 64) = 4.78, p < .05, g2 = .13, and aninteraction of regulation and sex, F(2, 64) = 5.72, p < .01,g2 = .15,were found. Formale

participants, there was a main effect of regulation, F(2, 32) = 8.23, p < .005, g2 = .34.

Follow-up contrasts on regulation indicated that men reported greater levels of emotional

arousal for pictures presented in the increase condition relative to pictures presented in

the decrease condition, F(1, 16) = 22.51, p < .0001, g2 = .59, and relative to those

presented in thewatch condition, F(1, 16) = 4.73, p < .05,g2 = .23, yielding a significant

(a) (b)

Figure 4. Mean arousal ratings for the 1 week delayed session for stimuli in each regulation and emotion

condition for men (a) and women (b). Error bars indicate standard error of the mean. *p < .05.


linear trend across increase, watch, and decrease conditions (p < .0001). No significant

difference was found in arousal ratings between the watch and decrease conditions, F(1,

16) = 2.10, ns. In contrast, for female participants, there was nomain effect of regulation

condition on arousal ratings, F(1, 32) = 1.86, ns.

Positive emotion

We found no significant main effects of regulation, F(2, 64) = 1.17, ns, or sex, F(2,

64) = 0.77, ns. No Regulation 9 Sex interaction, F(2, 64) = 1.94, ns, was found.

Neutral emotion


32) = 0.51, ns. No interaction effect of Regulation 9 Sex, F(2, 64) = 1.11,ns, was found.

Discussion

In the current study, we examined the long-term effects of cognitive reappraisal onsubjective emotional reactions and emotional memory for emotional and neutral picture

stimuli. Overall, we found that cognitive reappraisal modulated self-reported ratings of

emotional valence and arousal, episodic emotional memory, yielding significant linear

trends across the decrease, watch, and increase conditions. Cognitive reappraisal to

increase emotionwas associatedwith increased recall for pictures, relative to instructions

to decrease emotion. Subjective emotional arousal for negative pictures that had been

reappraised to increase remained increased relative to pictures reappraised to decrease

after a 1-week delay, but this effect was limited only to men.

Reappraisal and emotional memory

Consistent with our predictions, we found that the pictures reappraised to increase

emotion were better recalled than pictures reappraised to decrease emotion, for both

immediate and delayed recall tests. Moreover, the emotional memory modulation

effect associated with increasing emotion was more prominent in the 1 week delayed

test relative to the immediate test in that the difference between increase and watchconditions was additionally observed only in the delayed task. No significant

differences in memory modulation effects were found as a function of positive

versus negative valence, however. Our free recall results contrast somewhat with

previous studies reporting overall improvement in memory associated with reappraisal

to increase and decrease negative emotions, relative to no-reappraisal conditions

(Dillon, Ritchey, Johnson, & LaBar, 2007; Hayes et al., 2010; Kim & Hamann, 2012;

Richards & Gross, 2000). This difference in results may stem from the way the

memory test was conducted (previously announced vs. surprise memory testing),experimental design (stimulus conditions intermixed vs. presented in blocks of the

same type), and the way the control condition was designed (passive viewing vs. an

instruction to maintain). Overall, we found that pictures that participants reappraised

to increase emotion were recalled better than those which they reappraised to

decrease emotions, and this same effect was observed for both positive and negative

emotion.


Online and long-term modulation of subjective experience of emotion

Consistent with the results of previous studies (Kim & Hamann, 2007, 2012; Ochsner

et al., 2002), the online ratings of emotional valence and arousal obtained during the

regulation task suggested that participants successfully regulated their emotions inaccordance with regulation instructions. More interestingly, we also found evidence that

the effects of cognitive reappraisal persist over a relatively long delay interval, influencing

later emotional experience for stimuli which were previously reappraised. When men

returned after a 1-week delay in the current study, they rated the negative emotional

stimuli that they had originally reappraised to increase emotion as being higher in

emotional arousal, compared to those stimuli that they either had previously simply

watched and those they had reappraised to decrease emotion. To our knowledge,

long-term persistence of emotion reappraisal effects for emotional stimuli has not beenpreviously reported. This novel finding suggests that cognitive reappraisal may have a

relatively enduring modulatory effect in emotional experience.

To assess whether participant’s explicit memory of the specific regulation

conditions associated with each picture may have influenced the emotion ratings

on the 1 week delayed test, memory for this information was assessed during the

1 week delayed session. Participants showed only a negligible level of explicit

memory for the specific regulation conditions associated with each picture. Therefore,

the long-term modulation of subjective emotional responses found in this study isunlikely to have been influenced by participants’ explicit knowledge of specific

regulation conditions.

Interestingly, men but not women exhibited reappraisal effects for emotional

responses to negative pictures and this effect was more pronounced in the increase

condition. Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed results that were interpreted as

indicating better emotion regulation ability inmen than inwomen (Kempton et al., 2009;

McRae, Ochsner, Mauss, Gabrieli, & Gross, 2008). That is, men were found to recruit

fewer prefrontal resources when attempting to decrease negative emotion while at thesame time down-regulating amygdala activation more effectively than women (McRae

et al., 2008). However, differences in prefrontal involvement during increasing negative

emotion across men and women have not been reported. Therefore, it remained unclear

whether sex differencewe found in long-termmodulation of emotional arousalwas due to

differential utilization of neural resources and, in fact, would suggest more efficient

emotion regulation in men, relative to women (Mak et al., 2009; Nolen-Hoeksema &

Jackson, 2001; Vingerhoets & Van Heck, 1990). In general, women have been reported to

bemore emotionally andneurally responsive to negatively charged emotional information(Bradley, Codispoti, Sabatinelli, & Lang, 2001; Stevens & Hamann, 2012), which may be

related to increased difficulty of emotion regulation. For better understanding of sex

differences in emotion regulation, further studies in neural and behavioural mechanisms

of emotion regulation are warranted.

In summary, in this study we found that cognitive reappraisal to increase or decrease

emotion was associated with corresponding alterations in subjective experience and

long-term emotional memory. Cognitive reappraisal effects on emotional reactions to

reappraised stimuli persisted across a 1-week delay, though this effect was found only formen. In general, the current findings contribute to our understanding of how cognitive

reappraisal contributes to the experience and subsequent re-experience of emotion and

how regulation shapes both our immediate emotional experience and long-termmemory

for those experiences.


Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded

by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the Republic of Korea (nos.

2010-0005689, 2012R1A2A2A01012159).

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Received 5 September 2013; revised version received 1 November 2013


the effect of cognitive reappraisal on long-term emotional experience and emotional memory

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