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Updated: May 16, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Memory-Enhancing Effect of Emotion
Published on: May 4, 2011
Are emotional clarity and emotion differentiation related?
Matthew Tyler Boden1, Renee J Thompson, Mügé Dizén
1Center for Health Care Evaluation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA 94025, USA. matthew.t.boden@gmail.com
Abstract:
Distinct literatures have developed regarding the constructs of emotional clarity (people's meta-knowledge of their affective experience) and emotion differentiation (people's ability to differentiate affective experience into discrete categories, e.g., anger vs. fear). Conceptually, emotion differentiation processes might be expected to contribute to increased emotional clarity. However, the relation between emotional clarity and emotion differentiation has not been directly investigated. In two studies with independent, undergraduate student samples, we measured emotional clarity using a self-report measure and derived emotion differentiation scores from scenario-based (Study 1) and event-sampling-based (Study 2) measures of affect. We found that emotional clarity and emotion differentiation are: (i) associated to a very small and statistically insignificant degree; and (ii) differentially associated with trait and scenario-based/event-sampling-based measures of affect intensity and variability. These results suggest that emotional clarity and differentiation are distinct constructs with unique relations to various facets of affective experience.
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