Cognitive Reappraisal Ability Research Articles

Incentivized fake reviews: When cognitive reappraisal paves the way for an immoral journey

AbstractRecent studies explain how to detect fake reviews and their impacts on consumers and businesses. Despite the prevalence and significance of fake reviews, prior research has yet to fully explore the motivations and psychological mechanisms behind voluntary participation in writing fake reviews, especially in incentivized campaigns. This paper explains why consumers engage in the immoral act of writing fake reviews in return for free products. We investigate the interactive role of individuals' self‐focused motivations and cognitive reappraisal ability in diminishing consumers' moral emotions of guilt, subsequently influencing their intention to write incentivized reviews. Built on three studies, the findings reveal that customers' self‐focused motivations coupled with their ability to regulate emotions dissuade their feelings of guilt. Consequently, customers who experience downregulated emotions of guilt show a higher intention to write incentivized fake reviews. This study contributes to the existing literature by illustrating the driving factors toward writing incentivized fake reviews, especially by depicting the negative role of cognitive reappraisal. The study also has managerial implications indicating that such customer behavior can be avoided by fostering a sense of consideration toward others by making them aware about the impact of their actions.

29 Regulate to Remember: Cognitive Reappraisal Ability Impacts Prospective Memory Performance

Objective:Emotion regulation is generally thought of as the process of overriding one's initial emotional response to personally relevant events. One frequently investigated type of emotion regulation is cognitive reappraisal, which describes one's ability to cognitively alter the meaning of an event. Cognitive reappraisal is associated with better cognitive, social, and health outcomes compared to other emotion regulation strategies. The cognitive building blocks of cognitive reappraisal are related to executive cognitive control processes, which broadly describe one's ability to engage in non-automatic and goal-oriented behaviors. Crucially, executive control processes are also relevant in demanding cognitive tasks such as prospective memory since, similarly to cognitive reappraisal, they involve effortful and purpose driven efforts. However, cognitive reappraisal has thus far not been investigated regarding prospective memory performance despite findings that suggest that emotionally evocative stimuli improve prospective memory performance. The present study investigated whether cognitive reappraisal state and trait measures as well as other types of emotion regulation strategies are associated with prospective memory accuracy of negatively valenced prospective memory targets.Participants and Methods:A total of 45 participants (69% women; M = 22.62 years, SD = 5.69 years) took part in this cross-sectional study. Cognitive reappraisal and prospective memory tasks were administered on the computer. A total of 106 pictures were shown in the prospective memory task, including 12 prospective memory hits. A 2-back paradigm was used as the effortful ongoing task. Dependent measures included accuracy of and reaction times to negative prospective memory hits. A total of 45 pictures were shown in the cognitive reappraisal task. Participants were asked to decrease their negative emotions when looking at previously normed negatively valenced pictures versus merely looking at them (Lang et al., 2001). Dependent measures in the cognitive reappraisal task included success of downregulating negative emotion after the DECREASE versus LOOK instruction. A mood manipulation check and a questionnaire asking about participants' reappraisal strategies was conducted. Trait based measures of emotion regulation included the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Dysfunction of Emotion Regulation Scale.Results:Participants endorsed significantly higher negative mood after looking at negative versus neutral pictures, t(48) = 22.77, p , .05). Ratings further indicated that participants were able to significantly decrease how negative they felt when reappraising versus looking at negative pictures, t(44) = 12.82, p , .05. Regarding the relationship between prospective memory accuracy of negatively valanced prospective memory targets and cognitive reappraisal ability, no significant bivariate correlation was found (p > .05). However, a significant bivariate correlation was found between reaction times to negatively valenced prospective memory targets and cognitive reappraisal ability (rs = -.32, p = .03). No significant relationship was observed between prospective memory accuracy of or reaction times to negatively valenced prospective memory targets and trait based measures of emotion regulation (all ps > .05).Conclusions:Hypotheses were partly supported. Higher state-based cognitive reappraisal abilities may be associated with lower cognitive costs when asked to remember negatively evocative pictures and/or higher overall cognitive capacity. The importance of assessing emotion regulation when utilizing emotionally evocative stimuli and their clinical significant is discussed.

Cognitive reappraisal and corresponding neural basis mediate the association between childhood maltreatment and depression

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment is considered as a robust predictor of depression. However, the underlying psychological and neurological mechanisms linking childhood maltreatment and depression remain poorly understood. Sufficient evidence demonstrates emotion dysregulation in individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment, but it is unknown whether these changes represent vulnerability for depression. Here we speculated that decreased cognitive reappraisal and its corresponding neural basis might explain the relationship between childhood maltreatment and follow-up depression. MethodsFirst, we investigated whether cognitive reappraisal can explain the relationship between childhood maltreatment and depression, with a cross-sectional (n = 657) behavioral sample. Then we recruit 38 maltreated participants and 27 controls to complete the cognitive reappraisal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task. The between-group difference in brain activation and functional connectivity (FC) were tested using independent t-tests. Finally, we investigated the relationship between childhood maltreatment, task-based brain activity and depression. ResultsThe behavior results suggested that cognitive reappraisal mediates the association between childhood maltreatment and depression. In addition, the maltreated group exhibited lower activation of orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and higher FC of between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), OFC, and amygdala during cognitive reappraisal, compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, the FC of DLPFC-amygdala mediates the association between childhood maltreatment and depression. ConclusionIn summary, childhood maltreatment is associated with inefficient cognitive reappraisal ability, manifesting as aberrant modulation of cortical areas on amygdala. These cognitive and neural deficits might explain the relationship between childhood maltreatment and risk of depression in later life.

Sleep Deprivation Impairs Human Cognitive Reappraisal Ability: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

This study aims to examine the impact of sleep deprivation on individual cognitive reappraisal ability using a standardized behavioral paradigm. A randomizedpretest-posttest control group design was conducted. Thirty-nine participants were eventually enrolled and randomly assigned to receive either the sleep control (SC: n = 17) or the sleep deprivation (SD: n = 22). Both of them were required to perform a standardized behavioral paradigm of measuring cognitive reappraisal ability one time under sleep-rested condition and another time under the condition of different sleep manipulation a week later. Mean valence ratings of SD group were more negative than SC group's (p < 0.05) and mean arousal ratings of SD group were higher than SC group's (p < 0.01). Sleep deprivation may impair individual cognitive reappraisal ability and could potentially undermine the efficacy of cognitive therapy in terms of emotion regulation.

“INTEGRO INTEGRated Psychotherapeutic InterventiOn” on the Management of Chronic Pain in Patients with Fibromyalgia: The Role of the Therapeutic Relationship

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic disease characterized by a heterogeneous set of physical and psychological conditions. The chronic experience of disability felt by patients and the impact on quality of life (QoL) of the disease may worsen the cognitive reappraisal ability and contribute to maintaining an altered pain modulation mechanism. This paper presents the study protocol of an INTEGRated psychotherapeutic interventiOn on the management of chronic pain in patients with fibromyalgia (INTEGRO). The aim of the study is to investigate the efficacy of an integrated psychotherapeutic intervention focused on pain management on QoL and pain perception, in a pilot sample of 45 FM patients with idiopathic chronic pain. The contribution of perceived therapeutic relationship (alliance) and physiological attunement, in both the patient and therapist, will be considered as possible mediators of intervention efficacy. Attachment dimensions, traumatic experiences, difficulties in emotion regulation, mindfulness attitude and psychophysiological profile will also be considered as covariates. The objectives are to evaluate longitudinally if patients will experience an increase in QoL perception (primary endpoint), pain-managing self-efficacy and emotion-regulation abilities as well as a reduction in pain intensity (secondary endpoints), considering the mediating role of perceived therapeutic alliance and physiological attunement in both the patient and therapist.

Fitness Dance Counteracts Female Ph.D. Candidates' Stress by Affecting Emotion Regulation.

Background: The impact of stress on the nation's physical and mental health is considerable. Exercise is considered to have beneficial effects on mental health and the capacity for coping with stress. The purpose of this study is to verify the effects of fitness dance intervention on female Ph.D. candidates' stress, and compare it with the intervention effects of MBSR. Method: A repeated measurement experimental design was used to evaluate the effects of fitness dance and MBSR on Chinese female Ph.D. candidates' stress. Results: Twelve weeks of fitness dance and MBSR can reduce participants' stress from severe to moderate. Eight weeks of fitness dance can reduce the tension from perceived stress (p = 0.019) and loss of control from perceived stress (p = 0.043). Twelve weeks of fitness dance can reduce the tension from perceived stress (p &lt; 0.000), loss of control from perceived stress (p = 0.002) and perceived stress (p = 0.001). Fitness dance and MBSR affect emotion regulation, thereby affecting stress. Fitness dance reduced participants' stress by improving their cognitive reappraisal ability. MBSR reduced participants' stress by improving their cognitive reappraisal ability and expression suppression ability. Conclusions: Fitness dance, as a method of exercise intervention, is suitable for reducing Chinese female Ph.D. candidates' stress.

Child emotion inhibition mediates the effect of parent's adaptive cognitive emotion regulation on child frontal EEG asymmetry during reappraisal.

Cognitive reappraisal is considered an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, but little is known regarding children's ability to effectively implement cognitive reappraisal. Some research indicates that parenting contributes to child cognitive reappraisal ability, with parent's own adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies playing a role. Minimal research attempts to examine how child and parenting factors work together to affect child cognitive reappraisal. We examined this association through mediation analyses to determine whether child emotion coping and emotion inhibition would mediate the relation between parent's adaptive cognitive emotion regulation and children's cognitive reappraisal implementation. Children were instructed to implement cognitive reappraisal during a sad film, while electroencephalogram (EEG) was collected. Left frontal EEG asymmetry was conceptualized as effective cognitive reappraisal implementation. Our model supported full mediation for child emotion inhibition. Parent's adaptive cognitive emotion regulation was positively associated with children's emotion inhibition, which was then positively linked to children's left frontal EEG asymmetry during cognitive reappraisal. The model with child emotion coping as a mediator was not supported. Our findings highlight the importance of examining multiple pathways that may impact children's adaptive cognitive reappraisal ability.

Affective flexibility as a developmental building block of cognitive reappraisal: An fMRI study

Cognitive reappraisal is a form of emotion regulation that involves reinterpreting the meaning of a stimulus, often to downregulate one’s negative affect. Reappraisal typically recruits distributed regions of prefrontal and parietal cortex to generate new appraisals and downregulate the emotional response in the amygdala. In the current study, we compared reappraisal ability in an fMRI task with affective flexibility in a sample of children and adolescents (ages 6–17, N = 76). Affective flexibility was defined as variability in valence interpretations of ambiguous (surprised) facial expressions from a second behavioral task. Results demonstrated that age and affective flexibility predicted reappraisal ability, with an interaction indicating that flexibility in children (but not adolescents) supports reappraisal success. Using a region of interest-based analysis of participants’ BOLD time courses, we also found dissociable reappraisal-related brain mechanisms that support reappraisal success and affective flexibility. Specifically, late increases in middle prefrontal cortex activity supported reappraisal success and late decreases in amygdala activity supported flexibility. Together, these results suggest that our novel measure of affective flexibility – the ability to see multiple interpretations of an ambiguous emotional cue – may represent part of the developmental building blocks of cognitive reappraisal ability.

It's worth the trouble: Stressor exposure is related to increased cognitive reappraisal ability.

Recent theories propose moderate (compared to high or no) stressor exposure to promote emotion regulation capacities. More precisely, stressful situations are expected to serve as practice opportunities for cognitive reappraisal (CR), that is, the reinterpretation of a situation to alter its emotional impact. Accordingly, in this study, we expect an inverted U-shaped relationship between exposure to daily hassles and performance in a CR task, that is, best reappraisal ability in individuals with a history of moderate stressor exposure. Participants (N=165) reported the number of daily hassles during the last week as indicator of stressor exposure and completed the Script-based Reappraisal Test (SRT). In the SRT, participants are presented with fear-eliciting scripts and instructed to either downregulate negative affect via reappraisal (reappraisal-trials) or react naturally (control-trials). Two measures indicate CR ability: (1) reappraisal effectiveness, that is, the difference between affective ratings in reappraisal- and control-trials and (2) reappraisal inventiveness, that is, the number of valid and categorically different reappraisal thoughts. Multiple regression analyses revealed positive linear, but not quadratic, relationships of exposure to daily hassles and both indicators of CR ability. Potential benefits of stressor exposure for emotion regulation processes are discussed.

An Emotion Regulation Tablet App for Middle-Aged and Older Adults at High Suicide Risk: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Two Case Studies

The unique features of technological applications may improve the treatment of people at risk of suicide. In this article, we present feasibility and acceptability data as well as two case studies demonstrating the use of WellPATH, a tablet app that aims to help suicidal patients during emotionally-charged situations outside of therapy sessions. The WellPATH app was part of a 12-week psychotherapy intervention (CRISP - Cognitive Reappraisal Intervention for Suicide Prevention) for middle-aged and older adults after their discharge from a suicide-related hospitalization. The use of WellPATH includes three stages: preparation and practice, incorporation, and actual use. Feasibility was measured by the overall use of WellPATH during 12 weeks, and acceptability was measured with the three items of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire. Twelve study participants were administered WellPATH as part of CRISP. The results provide preliminary evidence of feasibility and acceptability of WellPATH. Study participants and therapists reported high satisfaction with WellPATH and provided feedback for future research and development. The patients in the case studies reported a reduction in negative emotions and an increase in emotion regulation (i.e., cognitive reappraisal ability) after using techniques on the WellPATH app. Our preliminary findings suggest that use of technology applications such as the WellPATH app is feasible and accepted among middle-aged and older adults at high suicide risk. Further research with an adequately powered sample is needed to further evaluate WellPATH's feasibility and accessibility, and test its efficacy with this high-risk population.

Cognitive reappraisal of low-calorie food predicts real-world craving and consumption of high- and low-calorie foods in daily life

In an increasingly obesogenic environment, an individual's regulatory capacity to pursue nutrient-rich, low-calorie foods over palatable, energy-dense items is essential to maintaining a healthy weight and preventing the detrimental health risks of obesity. Cognitive reappraisal, the process by which one changes the meaning of a stimulus by altering its emotional impact (or in this case, its appetitive value) demonstrates promise as a regulatory strategy to decrease obesogenic food consumption, but little research has directly addressed the relationship between cognitive reappraisal of food cravings and real-world eating behaviors. Additionally, research examining self-regulation of eating has typically focused exclusively on diminishing cravings and consumption of unhealthy, high-calorie foods, rather than examining, in tandem, ways to strengthen (or, up-regulate) cravings for healthier, low-calorie alternatives. In the present study, fifty-seven college aged participants first completed a cognitive reappraisal task in the laboratory in which they practiced regulating their craving responses to high- and low-calorie food items by focusing on the long-term health consequences of repeatedly consuming the pictured foods. Next, for a week following the laboratory session, participants reported daily eating behaviors via ecological momentary assessment. Participants who reported greater up-regulatory success during the reappraisal task also reported increased craving strength for low-calorie foods as well as decreased consumption of high-calorie foods in their daily lives. Greater overall regulation success also predicted more frequent consumption of craved low-calorie foods. These findings substantiate the association between cognitive reappraisal ability and real-world appetitive behaviors, and suggest that future interventions may benefit from specifically targeting individuals' evaluations of low-calorie foods.

Relationship between Alcohol Use Disorder and Cognitive Reappraisal Among Youth Seeking Help in Rehabilitation Centers in Kiambu County, Kenya

Alcohol is a widely used and abused substance globally. Deficits in cognitive reappraisal ability are assumed to mark the onset, maintenance, and relapse to alcohol use disorder. Alcohol may therefore be a means to escape from and self-medicate painful inner emotional states. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between and alcohol use disorder and cognitive reappraisal among youth seeking help in rehabilitation centers in Kiambu county. To establish any such relationships, this study utilised the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). Data was collected from 33 (23Males/10Females) youths between 15-35 years seeking help in three rehabilitation centers for alcohol abuse. These youths were compared to a similar group of 33 (20 Females/13Males) youths who had never used alcohol, or any other substance of abuse, and 12 (8 Females/4 Males) others who had stayed alcohol free for at least three years after rehabilitation or quitting alcohol. Correlation research design was found appropriate for this study. A Pearson’s correlation coefficient indicated a negative and significant correlation between AUD and reappraisal, showing that inability to utilise reappraisal is related to AUD. Integrating adaptive emotion regulation skills training, and especially the use of cognitive reappraisal in healthcare and rehabilitation settings, it seems, may lead to higher success rates in rehabilitation. 

Effect of cognitive reappraisal ability on presleep emotion regulation and sleep onset

Effect of cognitive reappraisal ability on presleep emotion regulation and sleep onset

The role of cognitive reappraisal in placebo analgesia: an fMRI study.

Placebo analgesia (PA) depends crucially on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which is assumed to be responsible for initiating the analgesic response. Surprisingly little research has focused on the psychological mechanisms mediated by the PFC and underlying PA. One increasingly accepted theory is that cognitive reappraisal—the reinterpretation of the meaning of adverse events—plays an important role, but no study has yet addressed the possible functional relationship with PA. We studied the influence of individual differences in reappraisal ability on PA and its prefrontal mediation. Participants completed a cognitive reappraisal ability task, which compared negative affect evoked by pictures in a reappraise versus a control condition. In a subsequent fMRI session, PA was induced using thermal noxious stimuli and an inert skin cream. We found a region in the left dorsolateral PFC, which showed a positive correlation between placebo-induced activation and (i) the reduction in participants’ pain intensity ratings; and (ii) cognitive reappraisal ability scores. Moreover, this region showed increased placebo-induced functional connectivity with the periaqueductal grey, indicating its involvement in descending nociceptive control. These initial findings thus suggest that cognitive reappraisal mechanisms mediated by the dorsolateral PFC may play a role in initiating pain inhibition in PA.

Change the things you can: Emotion regulation is more beneficial for people from lower than from higher socioeconomic status.

Emotion regulation is central to psychological health, and several emotion-regulation strategies have been identified as beneficial. However, new theorizing suggests the benefits of emotion regulation should depend on its context. One important contextual moderator might be socioeconomic status (SES), because SES powerfully shapes people's ecology: lower SES affords less control over one's environment and thus, the ability to self-regulate should be particularly important. Accordingly, effectively regulating one's emotions (e.g., using cognitive reappraisal) could be more beneficial in lower (vs. higher) SES contexts. Three studies (N = 429) tested whether SES moderates the link between cognitive reappraisal ability (CRA; measured with surveys and in the laboratory) and depression. Each study and a meta-analysis of the 3 studies revealed that CRA was associated with less depression for lower SES but not higher SES individuals. Thus, CRA may be uniquely beneficial in lower SES contexts. More broadly, the effects of emotion regulation depend upon the ecology within which it is used. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cognitive reappraisal ability buffers against the indirect effects of perceived stress reactivity on Type 2 diabetes.

Stress contributes to poor health outcomes; importantly, a stress reaction begins with the negative appraisal of a situation. The ability to use cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation strategy that involves reinterpreting an initial appraisal to change its emotional impact, could be a protective factor against the health consequences of stress reactivity. The present study investigated (a) if cognitive reappraisal ability (CRA) acts as a stress buffer against a body mass index (BMI) indicative of being overweight (≥25 kg/m2) or obese (≥30 kg/m2), and (b) if this buffering effect persists against the indirect influences of perceived stress reactivity (PSR) on Type 2 diabetes. One hundred fifty participants (54% female; mean age = 40.4 years ± 12.4 years) completed an online CRA task, self-report measures of PSR, height, weight, and Type 2 diabetes diagnosis on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Results revealed that CRA significantly interacted with PSR to predict BMI, which indirectly predicted Type 2 diabetes. Individuals with higher PSR and higher CRA exhibited BMIs within a normal weight range and lower incidence of Type 2 diabetes. In contrast, individuals with higher PSR and lower CRA were overweight or obese, with a higher incidence of Type 2 diabetes. Interestingly, higher CRA was not protective in those who had lower levels of PSR. Findings from this study suggest that emotion regulation interventions can be developed to indirectly target Type 2 diabetes and similar obesity-related illnesses, and that emotion regulation interventions should be tailored to the individual. (PsycINFO Database Record

Supplemental Material for Cognitive Reappraisal Ability Buffers Against the Indirect Effects of Perceived Stress Reactivity on Type 2 Diabetes

Supplemental Material for Cognitive Reappraisal Ability Buffers Against the Indirect Effects of Perceived Stress Reactivity on Type 2 Diabetes

Differences in emotion modulation using cognitive reappraisal in individuals with and without suicidal ideation: An ERP study

Difficulties in emotion regulation have been associated with increased suicidal thoughts and behaviours. The majority of studies have examined self-reported use of emotion regulation strategies. In contrast, the current study focused on a direct measure of individuals’ ability to use a specific emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, using the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential component that reflects attention to emotional stimuli. Specifically, the cognitive reappraisal ability of 33 undergraduate students was assessed via an image-viewing task during which the participants had to passively view, increase or reduce their emotions in response to looking at neutral, positive or dysphoric images. We found that participants with a history of suicidal ideation (SI) had significantly higher LPP when asked to reduce negative emotion in response to dysphoric images, compared to individuals with no history of SI. These findings suggest that difficulties with using cognitive reappraisal, specifically to decrease negative affect, might be linked to suicide risk.

Elucidating the Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: A Commentary on Treatment Changes in Neural Correlates of Subliminal and Supraliminal Threat in Individuals With Spider Phobia

Understanding how clinical interventions work is a fundamental task of clinical science. In particular, elucidating the brain and behavioral mechanisms of therapeutic change is essential to develop more refined and effective interventions and to understand why they work. One of the promises of functional neuroimaging is to provide a powerful window into the underlying psychological mechanisms instantiated in distributed brain networks that are modified with specific types of clinical interventions. In this issue of Biological Psychiatry ,L ipkaet al. (1) used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the impact of brief (2 3–5 hours of) small group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) versus a waitlist control group on the neurocircuitry involved in subliminal (preconscious) and supraliminal (conscious) threat processing in 28 female patients with spider phobia and 16 healthy control female participants. This study used a two-backward masking functional magnetic resonance imaging task with spider (vs. bird and mushroom) visual target stimuli to determine distinct brain responses to automatic versus conscious elaborative processing of threat cues, both of which represent mechanisms that may trigger and maintain hyperactive fear responses in individuals with spider phobia. Behaviorally, this study demonstrated that, compared with the waitlist control group, CBT resulted in significant decreases in selfreported negative valence and arousal to spider target stimuli, symptom severity, spider-related beliefs, self-related beliefs, and increases in behavioral approach. However, there was no evidence of reduction for vigilance suggesting that this may be an incontrovertible trait in individuals with spider phobia. Reductions in clinical symptoms and distorted beliefs related to CBT can occur despite no change in phobic hypervigilance in individuals with spider phobia. Neurally, pretreatment analyses focused on a priori brain regions of interest identified greater activation in participants with phobia versus healthy control participants in right amygdala and fusiform gyrus for subliminal threat processing with no detection of spiders and even more robust activations in bilateral amygdala, fusiform gyrus, anterior insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), pregenual ACC, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (PFC) for supraliminal correct conscious detection of spiders. This finding suggests a hyperactive network implicated in affective, visual, visceral, and cognitive control mechanisms during conscious threat processing in individuals with spider phobia that may be a target of clinical interventions. With respect to the impact of clinical treatment, CBT produced no changes during subliminal threat processing. However, compared with the waitlist control group, CBT was associated with greater reduction in activation of right amygdala and dorsal ACC during supraliminal threat processing. Pre- to post-CBT and waitlist group changes across all participants with spider phobia revealed habituation-related reductions in bilateral amygdala, anterior insula, dorsal and pregenual ACC, and dorsomedial PFC. This pattern of results suggests that CBT for spider phobia may not have an impact on automatic preconscious processing of subliminal threat processing and that the impact of CBT on supraliminal threat processing may be accounted for solely by habituation processes. These findings are in contrast to models of psychopathology that emphasize an inverse relationship between exaggerated emotional reactivity–related amygdala responses and top-down emotion regulation deficits reflected in diminished recruitment of cognitive control mechanisms instantiated in PFC and resolution of such abnormalities after CBT, specifically, increased PFC and decreased amygdala responses (2). Models of CBT emphasize increases in cognitive reappraisal ability and self-efficacy based on the extensive training in implementing cognitive restructuring in the context of fear exposure. Neurally, CBT training has been shown to enhance cognitive reappraisal via increases in integrated recruitment of

History of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Is Associated with Increased Cognitive Reappraisal Ability.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has been shown to be an effective treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. Little is known, however, about the specific psychological skills that may improve with MBCT. The present study investigated the relationship between history of MBCT and emotion regulation ability. Specifically, we examined cognitive reappraisal ability (CRA) in a sample of individuals with a history of MBCT compared with two control groups: a group without a history of any type of therapy and a group with a history of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Groups were matched on key variables including age, sex, education, working memory, emotional reactivity, and life stress. CRA was measured using a standardized laboratory challenge. Results indicated that participants with a history of MBCT demonstrated higher CRA than both the no-therapy control group and the CBT control group. These results suggest that, by guiding people to accept thoughts and feelings without judgment and to focus on the present moment, MBCT may lay the foundation for increased CRA.