Cognitive Demands and Memory-Related Outcomes of Emotion Regulation Tactics Among Younger and Older Adults

Abstract Older adults “paradoxically” report high emotional wellbeing despite declines in some cognitive abilities. The selection, optimization, and compensation with emotion regulation model (SOC-ER) suggests that older adults compensate for losses in cognitive resources by instead selecting and optimizing less cognitively-demanding (but effective) emotion regulation strategies. However, empirical evidence regarding which regulation behaviors are more cognitively demanding across the lifespan is limited. This study aimed to test the SOC-ER model by directly measuring the cognitive demand and outcomes of emotion regulation tactics. Younger (ages 18-25, N = 77) and older adults (ages 65+, N = 62) viewed blocks of negative images while instructed to use one regulation tactic per block: acceptance, positive-approaching, negative-receding, and negative-approaching. Cognitive demand was assessed for each tactic via self reports and pupillometry (a physiological measure of real time cognitive effort). Incidental memory for the stimuli was also assessed; participants completed a recognition memory test for all images presented during the regulation blocks. Results showed that while acceptance was self-reported as the least mentally demanding tactic and positive-approaching as the most, F(3,381)=3.655, p<.05, there was no significant difference in pupil dilation across tactics, F(3,351)=0.476, p=.699, ηp2=.004. Furthermore, positive-approaching was associated with the highest memory accuracy and negative-receding with the lowest, F(3,408)=13.90, p<.001, ηp2=.093. All interactions with age group were nonsignificant. Overall, the SOC-ER model was minimally supported, suggesting that older adults’ emotion regulation behaviors are not primarily driven by cognitive demand concerns.