The Cognition of Emotion: How Cognitive Control and Working Memory Underly Emotion Regulation Strategy Differences

Working memory is crucial for comprehensively grasping the dynamics of emotion regulation (ER) and cognitive control, as it serves as a foundational cognitive resource that influences how individuals manage their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This research aimed to examine the role working memory capacity (WMC) has on Frontal Midline Theta (FMT), an EEG marker for cognitive control, during two common ER strategies: emotional suppression and cognitive reappraisal. Participants performed both an Operation Span working memory task and an ER task, where they viewed a series of negative and neutral images across three conditions. First, participants were instructed to passively view, then subsequently suppress their reactions towards (emotional suppression), and rethink the context (cognitive reappraisal) of the images. Following stimulus presentation, participants were prompted to rate the pleasantness and arousal of each image. Participants rated negative images significantly more pleasant and less arousing during cognitive reappraisal than during the passive viewing condition. Additionally, FMT power was significantly greater during both regulation conditions than during the passive viewing condition. Finally, there was a significant negative relationship between WMC and FMT, whereby individuals with higher WMC scores showed reduced FMT while performing cognitive reappraisal in comparison to the passive viewing condition. This negative correlation suggests that high WMC individuals require less recruitment of cognitive control to utilize reappraisal than those with low WMC. These findings highlight the nuanced role of WMC in ER, suggesting a potential pathway for optimizing emotional outcomes through tailored strategies based on individual cognitive profiles.