title: The effect of cognitive reappraisal on the emotional memory trade-off.
abstract: Emotional information is often remembered better than neutral information, but this enhancement can come at the cost of memory for non-emotional stimuli presented alongside emotionally salient items. Two encoding-related factors have been proposed to influence the magnitude of this trade-off: The intensity of the affective response to the scenes (which increases the trade-off) and the cognitive control exerted to process the scenes (which decreases the trade-off). The present study examined the relative importance of these two factors by assessing the effect of cognitive reappraisal on the magnitude of the trade-off effect. Cognitive reappraisal refers to the implementation of cognitive strategies to assist a person in changing the intensity of their response to an experience. Thus, reappraisal provides a way to assess both of the factors that are important for the elicitation of the trade-off. The results revealed that when participants were asked to view the scenes, without cognitive reappraisal, a robust memory trade-off occurred. But, when participants were asked to either heighten or decrease their emotional reactions via reappraisal, there was a reduction in the magnitude of the trade-off. These results suggest that the cognitive process of reappraising the scenes is sufficient to reduce the trade-off effect, even when such processing leads to an intensified affective response.
authors: Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
authors: Allie
authors: A
authors: Steinberger
authors: Jessica D
authors: JD
authors: Payne
authors: Elizabeth A
authors: EA
authors: Kensinger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014796:Visual Perception