Emotion Regulation and Memory: Differential Associations in Younger and Midlife/Older Adults

Older adults may devote more cognitive resources to the processing and regulation of emotion stimuli than younger adults, but no studies have determined associations between episodic memory performance and naturalistic emotion recovery in a mixed-age sample. The current study ascertained if episodic memory scores were associated with emotion recovery in younger and midlife/older adults and if these associations were moderated by age.

Participants watched a montage of film clips about interpersonal loss. Self-reported negative and positive emotions were assessed prior to the video, immediately after, and again 10 min after the video. Executive functions, processing speed, and episodic memory were assessed.

Participants with better episodic memory recovered more quickly from the mood induction than participants with lower scores. Age moderated the association between joviality recovery and memory. Specifically, there was a significantly stronger, positive association between joviality recovery and memory in midlife/older adults relative to younger adults.

Stronger memory may facilitate emotion recovery, and this may be particularly true for older adults. Older adults with memory impairment may be at risk for emotion dysregulation.