Rompilla David B, Nook Erik C, Stephens Jacquelyn E, Hittner Emily F, Mittal Vijay A, Haase Claudia M
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX USA.
Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ USA.
Affect Sci. 2025 Jan 17;6(2):202-213. doi: 10.1007/s42761-024-00283-9. eCollection 2025 Jun.
Emotion regulation has long been suspected to boost executive functioning. Correlational studies have shown links between emotion regulation and executive functioning. However, experimental studies have been rare, especially with older adults for whom declines in executive functioning may become a pressing concern. In this laboratory-based study, we examined whether instructing older adults to use emotion regulation strategies in response to loss-themed film clips could enhance subsequent executive functioning. The sample consisted of 129 healthy older adults (age 64-83) who completed an experiment consisting of six trials in which they first watched a loss-themed film clip (with the instruction to "just watch" or to regulate their emotions using detachment, positive reappraisal, or emotional acceptance) and then completed an executive functioning task (assessing verbal fluency, inhibition, or working memory). Results showed a selective effect of emotion regulation on verbal fluency, but not inhibition or working memory performance. Older adults who were instructed to regulate negative emotions (vs. "just watch") subsequently showed greater verbal fluency. Effects of emotion regulation on executive functions did not differ between detachment, positive reappraisal, and emotional acceptance and remained stable when controlling for age, gender, education, and functional status. This study contributes to our understanding of emotion-cognition interactions, highlights emotion regulation as an avenue for enhancing verbal fluency in older adults, and suggests further probing of links between emotion regulation and other executive functioning processes in late life.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-024-00283-9.
长期以来，人们一直怀疑情绪调节能提升执行功能。相关研究表明了情绪调节与执行功能之间的联系。然而，实验研究却很少，尤其是针对执行功能衰退可能成为紧迫问题的老年人。在这项基于实验室的研究中，我们考察了指示老年人运用情绪调节策略来应对以失去为主题的电影片段是否能增强随后的执行功能。样本包括129名健康的老年人（年龄在64 - 83岁之间），他们完成了一项由六个试验组成的实验，在实验中，他们首先观看一个以失去为主题的电影片段（指示为“只是观看”或使用超脱、积极重新评价或情绪接受来调节情绪），然后完成一项执行功能任务（评估语言流畅性、抑制能力或工作记忆）。结果显示情绪调节对语言流畅性有选择性影响，但对抑制能力或工作记忆表现没有影响。被指示调节负面情绪（与“只是观看”相比）的老年人随后表现出更高的语言流畅性。情绪调节对执行功能的影响在超脱、积极重新评价和情绪接受之间没有差异，并且在控制年龄、性别、教育程度和功能状态时保持稳定。这项研究有助于我们理解情绪 - 认知相互作用，突出了情绪调节作为增强老年人语言流畅性的一条途径，并建议进一步探究情绪调节与晚年其他执行功能过程之间的联系。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s42761 - 024 - 00283 - 9获取的补充材料。
