Reappraising cognitive reappraisal: The taxing impact of emotion regulation on executive functioning in older adults

Cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES) are two common emotion regulation strategies that share similar cognitive and neural underpinnings. Prior research has consistently shown that recent engagement in ES (both self-reported and experimentally manipulated) is associated with subsequent temporary decrements in executive functioning (EF). Thus far, only one study has examined the association between CR and EF, with null results. However, that study was limited by examining only zero-order correlations and by assessing only the speed, not accuracy, of EF performance. The present study examined multivariate relationships among recent CR, recent ES, and EF (both speed and accuracy), as well as the potential impacts of more chronic engagements in, and trait-level preferences between, the two emotion regulation strategies.

Participants were 201 community-dwelling older adults aged 60 to 93 who had participated in three separate studies examining the relationship between self-reported emotion regulation and EF.

Recent CR was associated with EF performance accuracy above and beyond chronic CR. Both recent CR and ES contributed to EF performance accuracy uniquely beyond each other and beyond chronic and preferred emotion regulation.

Both recent ES and CR appear to have a deleterious impact on EF performance accuracy, potentially due to utilization of similar resources; both should be accounted for when assessing emotion regulation and its impacts on EF.