Roles of Attentional and Memory Processes in Recovery from Negative Affect

Abstract

In the field of affect-cognition interaction, current empirical efforts have focused on investigating the influences of affect on cognition, yet the effects of cognitive processes on the recovery from negative affect remains underexplored. To fill this gap, this research included three studies to empirically test the conceptual framework proposed theorizing roles of memory and attentional processes in recovery from negative affect.

Targeting at the dissonance and consistency during decays, Study 1 enrolled 80 participants in experimental sessions and conducted video-clip viewing, recalling, distraction, and retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) tasks, during which subjective and physiological affect levels were assessed and recorded. The results of hierarchical regression indicated a significant moderating effect of existence of recall on the relationship between working memory and affect recovery indices, i.e., Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) arousal recovery rate and skin conductance level (SCL) recovery half-life. For recovery processes with recall, higher working memory was significantly associated with slower recovery in both SAM arousal and SCL, while the link was not observed in recovery processes with no recall. Hierarchical linear modelling confirmed the shifts from dissonance to consistency with different fluctuations in SAM arousal during the recall phase in different working memory ability groups. In this phase, the two groups exhibited distinct signs in affect slopes, with a significant increase in subjective arousal in high working memory group, and a significant decrease in low working memory group. The results served as direct empirical supports for the existence of and the relationship between two processes of recovery proposed in the framework.

To investigate recovery processes with various post-event processing of the original trigger, Study 2 and Study 3 enrolled 108 participants respectively in experimental sessions. In both studies, participants were randomly assigned to three groups with distinct sequences of tasks (i.e., video clip viewing, recalling, and distraction) arranged, with Study 2 testing the recovery status when the event was re-experienced, and Study 3 testing the recovery status when the event was recalled. Study 2 resulted in a significant decrease in reactivation slope during re-experience with more post-event processing in SAM valence, illustrating general impacts of processing level in cognitive recovery indicated by re-experience reactivation. Study 3 confirmed the proposed associations among cognitive recovery status, memory, and processing level, and revealed a significant interaction between processing level and memory on reactivation slope during recall. Application, implication of the research, and future elaboration of the proposed framework are also discussed.

Date of Award	10 Sept 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Na Na Anna HUI (Supervisor)