Effects of working memory training on different goals of cognitive reappraisal.

Abstract

Working memory training (WMT) has shown potential benefits in emotion regulation (ER), mainly in terms of improved ability to downregulate negative emotions in cognitive reappraisal. However, the goal of cognitive reappraisal can be not only to reduce negative emotion but also to increase negative emotion. It is not clear what effect WMT has on the upregulation of negative emotion. In the current study, we conducted a 20-day WMT with participants to explore the effects of training on the down- and upregulation of negative emotion and followed participants for 3 months after training to examine the persistent effects of training. Our results suggest that participants in the training group improved their ability to regulate negative emotions in both the down- and upregulation conditions. Notably, benefits from training were also observed in the look negative condition, suggesting that WMT may elicit general cognitive enhancement that is broadly transferable to any kind of negative situation to help individuals regulate the effects of negative emotions. In addition, our study also showed that the improvement in negative ER by training could last even over 3 months. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).