The Influence of Emotional Regulation on Response Inhibition

The relationship between emotional regulation and response inhibition is examined. The presentation of highly arousing emotional pictures interferes with ongoing cognitive processes such as one’s ability to inhibit an unwanted response. In study 1, we measured emotional regulation and response inhibition independently. Results indicated that low emotional regulators exhibited faster reaction times. However, we did not find a correlation between emotional regulation and response inhibition. In study 2, we will examine the collective influences of emotional regulation and response inhibition. Participants will be trained to either up-regulate or down-regulate their emotional reactivity to highly-arousing negative stimuli. We predict that participants exposed to negative images will reveal slower response inhibition times; we further hypothesize that trained participants will demonstrate improved inhibitory control