1 Voluntarily specifying emotional information: Effects on emotional activation depend on « how »...

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Voluntarily specifying emotional information: Effects on emotional activation depend on « how » and « what » information is processed

Pierre Philippot

Together with : Céline Baeyens, Céline Douilliez, Aurore Neumann & Alex SchaeferUniversité de Louvain, Departt of Psychology10, Place Mercier – B 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium

Reprints / Pre-prints: w w w.ecsa.ucl.ac.be/personnel/philippot/

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Specificity:a relevant dimension in emotional information processing

General thinking about emotion as a coping strategy to avoid emotional distress– Overgenerality bias in emotional memory

(Williams, 1996)– Overgenerality in anxious rumination (Stöber

& Borkovec, 2002)

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Evolution of feelings intensity as a function of specificity of processing

3,54

4,55

5,56

6,57

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8,5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

General ProcessingSpecific Processing

Time (min.)

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The emotion processing paradoxe

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

vivid recollection of past experience can be– adaptive (Bechara, Damasio et al., 1999)– maladaptive – e.g. Flash-back

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Premises

Two levels of emotion representation– schematic– propositional

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Multilevel theories of emotion

e.g. Brewin, 2001; Dalgleish, 2004; Leventhal, 1984; Philippot et al., 2004; Teasdale & Barnard, 1993

Schematic representation– non declarative

– abstraction of higher order recurrencies

Propositional representation– declarative

– contextual and factual information

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Premises

Two levels of emotion representation– schematic– propositional

Emotional arousal is determined by schematic activation

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Premises

Two levels of emotion representation– schematic

– propositional

Emotional arousal is determined by schematic activation

Voluntarily processing emotional information implies the activation in working memory of both types of representation (schematic and propositional)

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Voluntary processing of emotional information...

requiers effortful « executive » processes to merge schematic and propositional information in the episodic buffer (Baddeley, 2003)

generates a particular type of consciousness: « autonoetic consciousness »Wheeler, M.A., Stuss, D.A.T., & Tulving, E. (1997). Toward a theory of episodic memory: The frontal lobes and autonoetic consciousness. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 331-354.

The same processes allow travel in time– Not only to retrieve past experience– But also to envision future experience– And to consciously experience the present moment

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Voluntary processing of emotional information

General AM

Specific AM

Spe

cifi

cati

onContextual information

Emotional information

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Hypothesis

Volontarily specifying emotional episodic information should inhibit emotional arousal.

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Study 1 :

Priming a specific or an overgeneral processing mode before emotion induction

Source: Philippot, P., Schaefer, A., & Herbette, G. (2003). Consequences of specific processing of emotional information: Impact of general versus specific autobiographical memory priming on emotion elicitation. Emotion, 3, 270-283.

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Study 1: Method

45 students Procedure

– Relaxation (60”)

– Priming (60”)

• Specific-AM Condition : priming of S-AM

• Overgeneral-AM Condition : priming of G-AM

• Control Condition : semantic task

– Emotion induction via mental imagery (20”)

– Intensity rating of emotion felt during imagerySource: Philippot, P., Schaefer, A., & Herbette, G. (2003). Consequences of specific processing of emotional information: Impact of general versus specific autobiographical memory priming on emotion elicitation. Emotion, 3, 270-283.

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Study 1: Method

45 students Procedure

– Relaxation (60”)

– Priming (60”)

• Specific-AM Condition : priming of S-AM

• Overgeneral-AM Condition : priming of G-AM

• Control Condition : semantic task

– Emotion induction via mental imagery (20”)

– Intensity rating of emotion felt during imagerySource: Philippot, P., Schaefer, A., & Herbette, G. (2003). Consequences of specific processing of emotional information: Impact of general versus specific autobiographical memory priming on emotion elicitation. Emotion, 3, 270-283.

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Study 1: Results

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3,2

3,4

3,6

3,8

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4,2

4,4

Condition

ControlSpecific-AMGeneral-AM

Source: Philippot, P., Schaefer, A., & Herbette, G. (2003). Consequences of specific processing of emotional information: Impact of general versus specific autobiographical memory priming on emotion elicitation. Emotion, 3, 270-283.

EmotionalIntensity

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Study 2

Manipulating a specific or an overgeneral processing mode during emotion induction

Source: Schaefer, A., Collette, F., Philippot, P., Van der Linden, M., Laureys, S., Delfiore, G., Degueldre, S., Maquet, P., Luxen, A. & Salmon, E. (2003). Neural correlates of hot and cold emotions: A multilevel approach to the functional anatomy of emotion. Neuroimage, 18, 938-949.

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Study 2: Method

Design– Overgeneral vs. specific processing

• Overgeneral: mentally repeating metaphoric sentences

• Specific: mentally repeating specific appraisals

– Emotion (Anger, Sadness, Happiness, Affection, Neutral)

Measures– Feeling state quality (DES) & intensity

– Heart Rate & Skin Conductance

– H2150-PET camera


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Results: Feelings Intensity

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Anger Sadness Joy Tender. Neutral

Overgeneral

Specific

Condition:F(1, 20)=161.73, p<.0001

Emotion:F(4, 80)=80.97, p<.0001

Condition X Emotion:F(4, 80)=45.08, p<.0001


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Results: Heart Rate Changes

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1

2

3

4

5

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Anger Sadness Joy Tender. Neutral

Overgeneral

Specific

Condition:F(1, 18)=4.63, p<.05

Emotion:F(4, 72)=5.28, p<.001

Condition X Emotion:F(4, 72)=4.21, p<.004


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Etude 3

Specific versus General Processing of Anxious Predictions

Source: Philippot, P., Baeyens, C., & Douilliez, C. (2004, in revision). Specifiying emotional information : Modulation of Emotional Intensity via Executive Processes.

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Method

60 students Induction of anxious apprehension. Random assignment in three conditions

– specific processing of anxious information– general processing of anxious information– no processing.

DV: DES and STAI before and after the manipulation


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3,5

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4,5

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Anxiety Pre-test Anxiety Post-test

ControlGeneralSpecific

AnxietyIntensity

Interaction: F(2,57)=28.68, p<.000, 2= .45

Anxiety Evolution as a Function of Experimental Condition


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Specifying any information?

Specific activation of emotion representation (“response propositions”) leads to greater emotional arousal (Lang, 1993)

Distinction between– context specific information

– schema relevant information

Schaefer, A & Philippot, P. (2004, in press.). Cognitive determinants of subjective and physiological responses

during the evocation of a past emotional experience. Memory.

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Study 3 : Neumann & Philippot, In prep.

Specifying contextually versus emotionally relevant information during the evocation of emotional memories

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Method

54 students evocation (mental imagery procedure) of two

positive and two negative memories (Within-S. manipulation).

Random assignment in three conditions– Specification of the context relevant information

– Specification of the schema relevant information

– General processing

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Between-Ss. manipulation

Specification of the context relevant information:– Questions prompting specification of time, location,

persons present, etc.

Specification of the schema relevant information– Questions prompting specification of perceptual and

sensory experience, bodily sensation, etc.

General processing– Questions prompting general impression, relation with

generic event, etc.

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Method

54 students evocation (mental imagery procedure) of two

positive and two negative memories (Within-S. manipulation).

Random assignment in three conditions– Specification of the context relevant information– Specification of the schema relevant information – General processing

DV: Intensity of emotional feelings before and after the manipulation (VAS)

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Results

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GeneralProcessing

ContextSpecification

SchemaSpecification

Positive MemoriesNegative Memories

EmotionalIntensity(VAS)

Processing condition : F(2, 51) = 13.49, p < .001, 2= .35

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Summary

People share a naive theory stating that specifying personal information increases emotional arousal

However, manipulating the processing of personal information shows that the opposite is true, under certain conditions

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Summary

Voluntarily specifying emotional information reduces emotion intensity for present as well as for past (AM) or future information

The type of emotional information specified is determinant

Our interpretation:– Not a change in emotional information content– A change in processing mode, and more specifically

in strategic attention allocation

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Clinical implications

This gap between naive theory and empirical evidence might constitute a maintenance factor for emotional disorders:– Avoiding to emotionally experience specific

memories/predictionsBeing deprived of the possibility

To regulate emotional arousalTo use problem solving capacitiesTo be in touch with one’s unique present experience

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Clinical applications

For exposure procedures:– importance of voluntarily raising awareness of

specific contextual information

For cognitive restructuring procedures:– targeting not content but processing mode of

worries and dysfunctional thoughts

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