Koay Jun Min, Van Meter Anna
Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida.
J Cogn Psychol (Hove). 2023;35(3):315-329. doi: 10.1080/20445911.2023.2172417. Epub 2023 Feb 8.
Emotion regulation and executive function are associated: adaptive regulatory strategies are linked to better executive functioning while maladaptive strategies correspond with worse executive functioning. However, if - and how - these two processes affect one another has not previously been explored; most studies have employed a correlational approach, leaving the direction of influence unknown. We aim to address this gap by using an experimental design to explore the impact of emotion regulation on executive functioning. Adult participants (=31) completed an executive functioning task (Computerized Task-Switching Test) under four induced emotion regulation conditions (1) neutral/baseline, (2) positive mood-maintain, (3) negative mood-maintain, (4) negative mood-reduce (conditions 2-4 were randomized). Relative to baseline, participants demonstrated better set-shifting performance across regulation conditions. In contrast, inhibitory control performance was slower, despite anticipated improvement due to practice effects. This suggests that inhibitory control may be more involved in the emotion regulation process than set-shifting when participants have a specific emotion regulation goal to achieve. The present study provides preliminary evidence that individuals' ability to perform executive function tasks may be affected by concurrent emotion regulation demands; additional experiments are necessary to further probe the complexity of the association between these two processes.
适应性调节策略与更好的执行功能相关，而适应不良的策略则与较差的执行功能相对应。然而，这两个过程是否以及如何相互影响，此前尚未得到探讨；大多数研究采用的是相关研究方法，因此影响的方向尚不清楚。我们旨在通过采用实验设计来探索情绪调节对执行功能的影响，以填补这一空白。成年参与者（n = 31）在四种诱导情绪调节条件下完成了一项执行功能任务（计算机化任务切换测试）：（1）中性/基线，（2）积极情绪维持，（3）消极情绪维持，（4）消极情绪减轻（条件2 - 4是随机的）。相对于基线，参与者在各种调节条件下表现出更好的任务转换能力。相比之下，尽管由于练习效应预计抑制控制能力会有所提高，但实际表现却更慢。这表明，当参与者有特定的情绪调节目标要实现时，抑制控制在情绪调节过程中可能比任务转换更重要。本研究提供了初步证据，表明个体执行执行功能任务的能力可能会受到同时存在的情绪调节需求的影响；还需要进一步的实验来深入探究这两个过程之间关联的复杂性。
