Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

High working memory capacity facilitates distraction as an emotion regulation strategy

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous research suggests that distraction, which shifts attention away from negative situations or stimuli, reduces negative emotion. Although working memory capacity plays an important role in attention control, it remains unclear whether working memory capacity influences the effect of distraction as an emotion regulation strategy. In this study, we examined the relationship between working memory capacity and distraction. Seventy-six healthy undergraduate and graduate students participated in this study. Participants watched a movie clip that evoked negative emotion. Approximately half of the participants subsequently engaged in a distraction task in which they selected a category for 32 displayed images; the other half of the participants were instructed to wait 210 s as a questionnaire was prepared. The participants were asked to respond to the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule before and after watching the movie clip, as well as after completing the distraction task or waiting. A multiple regression analysis showed an interaction between the effectiveness of distraction and working memory capacity. As predicted, among participants in the distraction condition, those with higher working memory capacity expressed less negative emotion than those with lower working memory capacity. This result suggests that the effectiveness of distraction depends on individual differences in working memory capacity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. IDs of the chosen IAPS images: 1302, 1321, 2190, 2200, 2215, 2440, 2516, 5500, 5520, 5740, 5920, 5950, 7004, 7006, 7009, 7010, 7020, 7025, 7030, 7031, 7034, 7035, 7050, 7080, 7090, 7150, 7175, 7211, 7950, 8010, 8060, and 8160.

References

  • Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(2), 217–237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Andreotti, C., Thigpen, J. E., Dunn, M. J., Watson, K., Potts, J., Reising, M. M., et al. (2013). Cognitive reappraisal and secondary control coping: Associations with working memory, positive and negative affect, and symptoms of anxiety/depression. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 26(1), 20–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnow, B. A., Spangler, D., Klein, D. N., & Burns, D. D. (2004). Rumination and distraction among chronic depressives in treatment: A structural equation analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28(1), 67–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4(11), 417–423.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 8, 47–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barkley, R. A. (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1), 65–94.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barrett, L. F., Tugade, M. M., & Engle, R. W. (2004). Individual differences in working memory capacity and dual-process theories of the mind. Psychological Bulletin, 130(4), 553–573.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Beilock, S. L., & Carr, T. H. (2005). When high-powered people fail: Working memory and “choking under pressure” in math. Psychological Science, 16(2), 101–105.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brans, K., Koval, P., Verduyn, P., Lim, Y. L., & Kuppens, P. (2013). The regulation of negative and positive affect in daily life. Emotion, 13(5), 926–939.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S. (1997). You want to measure coping but your protocol too long: Consider the brief cope. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1), 92–100.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Conway, A. R., Cowan, N., & Bunting, M. F. (2001). The cocktail party phenomenon revisited: The importance of working memory capacity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8(2), 331–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conway, A. R., Kane, M. J., Bunting, M. F., Hambrick, D. Z., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user’s guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(5), 769–786.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19(4), 450–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erber, R., & Tesser, A. (1992). Task effort and the regulation of mood: The absorption hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28(4), 339–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forster, S., & Lavie, N. (2016). Establishing the attention-distractibility trait. Psychological Science, 27(2), 203–212.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. R. (2001). Emotional modulation of cognitive control: Approach–withdrawal states double-dissociate spatial from verbal two-back task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(3), 436–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent-and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224–237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (2013). Emotion regulation: Taking stock and moving forward. Emotion, 13(3), 359–365.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1993). Emotional suppression: Physiology, self-report, and expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(6), 970–986.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using films. Cognition & Emotion, 9(1), 87–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Thompson, R. A. (2007). Emotion regulation: Conceptual foundations. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 3–24). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heiy, J. E., & Cheavens, J. S. (2014). Back to basics: A naturalistic assessment of the experience and regulation of emotion. Emotion, 14(5), 878–891.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, W., Gschwendner, T., Friese, M., Wiers, R. W., & Schmitt, M. (2008). Working memory capacity and self-regulatory behavior: Toward an individual differences perspective on behavior determination by automatic versus controlled processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(4), 962–977.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jonides, J., Schumacher, E. H., Smith, E. E., Lauber, E. J., Awh, E., Minoshima, S., & Koeppe, R. A. (1997). Verbal working memory load affects regional brain activation as measured by PET. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9(4), 462–475.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joormann, J., Siemer, M., & Gotlib, I. H. (2007). Mood regulation in depression: Differential effects of distraction and recall of happy memories on sad mood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116(3), 484–490.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kalm, M. A. (1995). Distractibility as a symptom of ADHD. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 34(9), 1119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kane, M. J., Bleckley, M. K., Conway, A. R., & Engle, R. W. (2001). A controlled-attention view of working-memory capacity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(2), 169–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohama, S. (2012). Procrastination pattern, distraction strategy, and mental health. Japanese Journal of Education, 60(4), 392–401.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (1999). International affective picture system (IAPS): Technical manual and affective ratings. Gainesville, FL: Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavie, N. (2010). Attention, distraction, and cognitive control under load. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(3), 143–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Litman, J. A. (2006). The COPE inventory: Dimensionality and relationships with approach-and avoidance-motives and positive and negative traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 41(2), 273–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McRae, K., Jacobs, S. E., Ray, R. D., John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2012). Individual differences in reappraisal ability: Links to reappraisal frequency, well-being, and cognitive control. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(1), 2–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mennin, D. S., Heimberg, R. G., Turk, C. L., & Fresco, D. M. (2005). Preliminary evidence for an emotion dysregulation model of generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43(10), 1281–1310.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Minamoto, T., Shipstead, Z., Osaka, N., & Engle, R. W. (2015). Low cognitive load strengthens distractor interference while high load attenuates when cognitive load and distractor possess similar visual characteristics. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 77(5), 1659–1673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murayama, K., & Oikawa, M. (2005). Are avoidance strategies always maladaptive? Japanese Journal of Education, 53(2), 273–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100(4), 569–582.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1993). Effects of rumination and distraction on naturally occurring depressed mood. Cognition & Emotion, 7(6), 561–570.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Morrow, J., & Fredrickson, B. L. (1993). Response styles and the duration of episodes of depressed mood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102(1), 20–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(5), 400–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Otsuka, K., & Miyatani, M. (2007). Target words and sentences for Japanese version of the reading span test. Hiroshima Psychological Research, 7, 19–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Otsuka, K., & Miyatani, M., (2012). Impact of the set-size on complex span tasks. In Proceedings of the 10th Tsukuba International Conference on Memory, Gakusyuin University.

  • Pe, M. L., Raes, F., & Kuppens, P. (2013). The cognitive building blocks of emotion regulation: Ability to update working memory moderates the efficacy of rumination and reappraisal on emotion. PLoS One, 8(7), e69071.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, J. W. (2007). PsychoPy—Psychophysics software in python. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 162(1), 8–13.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, J. W. (2008). Generating stimuli for neuroscience using PsychoPy. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 2, 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, L. H., Henry, J. D., Hosie, J. A., & Milne, A. B. (2008). Effective regulation of the experience and expression of negative affect in old age. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 63(3), 138–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pratto, F., & John, O. P. (1991). Automatic vigilance: The attention-grabbing power of negative social information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(3), 380–391.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quirin, M., Kazén, M., & Kuhl, J. (2009). When nonsense sounds happy or helpless: The implicit positive and negative affect test (IPANAT). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(3), 500–516.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Redick, T. S., Heitz, R. P., & Engle, R. W. (2007). Working memory capacity and inhibition: Cognitive and social consequences. In D. S. Gorfein & C. M. MacLeod (Eds.), Inhibition in cognition (pp. 125–142). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg, J., Ray, R. D., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Emotion elicitation using films. In J. A. Coan & J. J. B. Allen (Eds.), The handbook of emotion elicitation and assessment. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sato, A., & Yasuda, A. (2001). Development of the Japanese version of positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) scales. The Japanese Journal of Personality, 9(2), 138–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sato, W., Noguchi, M., & Yoshikawa, S. (2007). Emotion elicitation effect of films in a Japanese sample. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 35(7), 863–874.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmeichel, B. J., Volokhov, R. N., & Demaree, H. A. (2008). Working memory capacity and the self-regulation of emotional expression and experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(6), 1526–1540.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shima, S., Shikano, T., Kitamura, T., & Asai, M. (1985). New self-rating scales for depression. Clinical Psychiatry, 27(6), 717–723.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimizu, H., & Imae, K. (1981). Japanese version of state-trait anxiety inventory. Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology, 29(4), 348–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibley, B. A., & Beilock, S. L. (2007). Exercise and working memory: An individual differences investigation. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 29(6), 783–791.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Siemer, M. (2005). Mood-congruent cognitions constitute mood experience. Emotion, 5(3), 296–308.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., & Lushene, R. E. (1970). Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory. Palo Alto, California: Consulting Psychologists Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, M. L., & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28(2), 127–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unsworth, N., & McMillan, B. D. (2013). Mind wandering and reading comprehension: Examining the roles of working memory capacity, interest, motivation, and topic experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(3), 832–842.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Unsworth, N., Heitz, R. P., Schrock, J. C., & Engle, R. W. (2005). An automated version of the operation span task. Behavior Research Methods, 37(3), 498–505.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dillen, L. F., & Derks, B. (2012). Working memory load reduces facilitated processing of threatening faces: An ERP study. Emotion, 12(6), 1340–1349.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dillen, L. F., & Koole, S. L. (2007). Clearing the mind: A working memory model of distraction from negative mood. Emotion, 7(4), 715–723.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775–808.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 17H02635.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    Ryota Kobayashi, Makoto Miyatani & Takashi Nakao

Authors
  1. Ryota Kobayashi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Makoto Miyatani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Takashi Nakao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryota Kobayashi.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kobayashi, R., Miyatani, M. & Nakao, T. High working memory capacity facilitates distraction as an emotion regulation strategy. Curr Psychol 40, 1159–1167 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0041-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0041-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation