Reappraisal and Distraction Emotion Regulation Strategies Are Associated with Distinct Patterns of Visual Attention and Differing Levels of Cognitive Demand

Abstract

Multiple emotion regulation strategies have been identified and found to differ in their effectiveness at decreasing negative emotions. One reason for this might be that individual strategies are associated with differing levels of cognitive demand and require distinct patterns of visual attention to achieve their effects. In the current study, we tested this hypothesis in a sample of psychiatrically healthy participants (n = 25) who attempted to down-regulate negative emotion to photographs from the International Affective Picture System using cognitive reappraisal or distraction. Eye movements, pupil dilation, and subjective reports of negative emotionality were obtained for reappraisal, distraction, unpleasant passive viewing, and neutral passive viewing conditions. Behavioral results indicated that reappraisal and distraction successfully decreased self-reported negative affect relative to unpleasant passive viewing. Successful down regulation of negative affect was associated with different patterns of visual attention across regulation strategies. During reappraisal, there was an initial increase in dwell time to arousing scene regions and a subsequent shift away from these regions during later portions of the trial, whereas distraction was associated with reduced total dwell time to arousing interest areas throughout the entire stimulus presentation. Pupil dilation was greater for reappraisal than distraction or unpleasant passive viewing, suggesting that reappraisal may recruit more effortful cognitive control processes. Furthermore, greater decreases in self-reported negative emotion were associated with a lower proportion of dwell time within arousing areas of interest. These findings suggest that different emotion regulation strategies necessitate different patterns of visual attention to be effective and that individual differences in visual attention predict the extent to which individuals can successfully decrease negative emotion using reappraisal and distraction.

Fig 1. Example Trial Sequence with Eye Tracking Data and Emotional Interest Areas Depicted.

The trial started with a 1000ms fixation, followed by a 200ms instruction cue (distract, reappraise, watch, view), a 5000ms IAPS stimulus presentation, and unlimited time for self-reported negative affect. The unpleasant image presented is a sample stimulus. It is not part of the IAPS library and was not included in the task. Actual IAPS images could not be displayed due to copyright limitations.

Fig 2. Mean self-reported negative emotion, total fixations, and pupil dilation across the entire image.

A) Mean (SE) self-reported negative affect for each condition; B) Mean (SE) total number of fixations throughout the entire image for each condition; C) Mean (SE) pupil dilation hroughout the entire image for each condition.

Fig 3. Mean Proportion Dwell Time and Pupil Dilation within the Emotional Areas of Interest.

A) Mean (SE) proportion dwell time to the emotional interest areas for each condition, collapsing across the entire 5 second period; B) Mean (SE) proportion dwell time to the emotional interest areas for each condition, averaged at separate 5 second intervals; C) Mean (SE) pupil dilation at fixation within the emotional areas of interest across the entire 5 second period; D) Mean (SE) pupil dilation at fixation within the emotional areas of interest, averaged across separate 5 second intervals.