Positive emotion up-regulation is resistant to working memory load: An electrocortical investigation of reappraisal and savoring

Studies of emotion regulation to-date have mostly focused on negative emotion down-regulation, leaving positive emotion up-regulation poorly understood, particularly regarding factors that may modulate its success. While reappraisal and savoring have been shown to be effective at increasing electrocortical and subjective response to pictures in controlled laboratory settings, it remains unclear whether individuals can effectively enact these techniques to willfully increase positive emotions in everyday life when faced with other concurrent distractions/demands. Here, we used the late positive potential (LPP), an electrocortical measure that is larger for emotional compared to neutral stimuli, to assess the effect of working memory (WM) load on individuals' ability to reappraise or savor positive pictures. Seventy-six participants were randomly assigned to use either reappraisal or savoring to up-regulate positive emotion to pictures. Following training, participants engaged in a positive emotion up-regulation task interspersed with high and low WM load trials, while EEG was recorded. Frequentist and Bayesian statistics showed that although high WM load seemed to consume resources and reduced picture processing overall, it did not interfere with the enhancement of the LPP via positive emotion up-regulation. Nonetheless, WM performance (especially on high-load trials) was worse when participants were engaged in positive emotion up-regulation. Therefore, while both techniques appear to be effective under concurrent WM load, positive emotion up-regulation may interfere with other ongoing tasks.