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. 2020 Dec 10;15(12):e0243209.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243209. eCollection 2020.

Individual differences in emotion regulation and face recognition

Ahmed M Megreya  1 , Robert D Latzman  2
Affiliations

Individual differences in emotion regulation and face recognition

Ahmed M Megreya et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Face recognition ability is highly variable among neurologically intact populations. Across three experiments, this study examined for the first time associations between individual differences in a range of adaptive versus maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and face recognition. Using an immediate face-memory paradigm, in which observers had to identify a self-paced learned unfamiliar face from a 10-face target-present/ target-absent line-up, Experiment 1 (N = 42) found high levels of expressive suppression (the ongoing efforts to inhibit emotion-expressive behaviors), but not cognitive reappraisal (the cognitive re-evaluation of emotional events to change their emotional consequences), were associated with a lower level of overall face-memory accuracy and higher rates of misidentifications and false positives. Experiment 2 (N = 53) replicated these finding using a range of face-matching tasks, where observers were asked to match pairs of same-race or different-race face images taken on the same day or during different times. Once again, high levels of expressive suppression were associated with a lower level of overall face-matching performance and higher rates of false positives, but cognitive reappraisal did not correlate with any face-matching measure. Finally, Experiment 3 (N = 52) revealed that the higher use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, especially catastrophizing, was associated with lower levels of overall face-matching performances and higher rates of false positives. All told, the current research provides new evidence concerning the important associations between emotion and cognition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. A schematic representation of the unfamiliar immediate memory task.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Scatter plots for the relationship between expressive suppression and false positives in face immediate memory in Experiment 1.
r (40) = .57, p< 0.001, with 95% confidence internals of .32 to .74.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Examples of face-matching tasks used in Experiment 2 and 3.
Regarding copyright issues, we could not present examples for the UK face images that were taken in different times.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Scatter plots for the relationship between expressive suppression false positives in the overall face-matching task in Experiment 2.
r (50) = .51, p< 0.001, with 95% confidence internals of .22 to .75.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Scatter plots for the relationship between catastrophizing and false positives in the overall face-matching task in Experiment 3.
r (50) = .51, p< 0.001, with 95% confidence internals of .29 to .68.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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