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Updated: May 8, 2026
08:09
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Cognitive emotion regulation fails the stress test
Candace M Raio1, Temidayo A Orederu, Laura Palazzolo
1Psychology Department and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY 10003.
Summary
Stress significantly impairs cognitive emotion regulation. Even after training, individuals exposed to stress could not reduce fear responses, unlike unstressed individuals, highlighting limitations under pressure.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Stress Research
Background:
- Cognitive emotion regulation is effective in lab settings.
- Everyday stress often prevents the use of emotion regulation strategies.
- Stress impairs executive functions and prefrontal cortex activity, crucial for cognitive regulation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the efficacy of cognitive emotion regulation after acute stress exposure.
- To investigate if stress hinders the application of learned emotion regulation skills.
Main Methods:
- Participants underwent fear conditioning and cognitive regulation training.
- An acute stress induction or control task was administered the next day.
- Fear arousal (skin conductance) and stress markers (salivary α-amylase, cortisol) were measured.
Main Results:
- No group differences in initial fear learning.
- Unstressed participants showed significant fear reduction after regulation training.
- Stressed participants failed to reduce fear responses post-regulation training.
Conclusions:
- Acute stress markedly impairs the cognitive regulation of emotion.
- Learned emotion regulation strategies are less effective under stress.
- Highlights limitations of cognitive regulation in controlling affective responses during stress.
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