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Pierre Philippot Together with : Céline Baeyens, Céline Douilliez, Aurore Neumann & Alex Schaefer

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 Schaefer

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Pierre Philippot Together with : Céline Baeyens, Céline Douilliez, Aurore Neumann & Alex Schaefer

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  1. 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 Schaefer Université 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/

  2. 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)

  3. Evolution of feelings intensity as a function of specificity of processing

  4. 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

  5. Premises • Two levels of emotion representation • schematic • propositional

  6. 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

  7. Premises • Two levels of emotion representation • schematic • propositional • Emotional arousal is determined by schematic activation

  8. 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)

  9. 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

  10. Voluntary processing of emotional information General AM Emotional information Contextual information Specification Specific AM

  11. Hypothesis • Volontarily specifying emotional episodic information should inhibit emotional arousal.

  12. 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.

  13. 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 imagery 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.

  14. 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 imagery 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.

  15. Study 1: Results EmotionalIntensity 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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 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.

  18. Results: Feelings Intensity 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 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.

  19. Results: Heart Rate Changes 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 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.

  20. 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.

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

  22. Anxiety Evolution as a Function of Experimental Condition Anxiety Intensity Interaction: F(2,57)=28.68, p<.000, h2= .45 Source:Philippot, P., Baeyens, C., & Douilliez, C. (2004, in revision). Specifiying emotional information : Modulation of Emotional Intensity via Executive Processes.

  23. 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.

  24. Study 3 : Neumann & Philippot, In prep. Specifying contextually versus emotionally relevant information during the evocation of emotional memories

  25. 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

  26. 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.

  27. 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)

  28. Results EmotionalIntensity (VAS) Processing condition : F(2, 51) = 13.49, p < .001, h2= .35

  29. 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

  30. 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

  31. Clinical implications • This gap between naive theory and empirical evidence might constitute a maintenance factor for emotional disorders: • Avoiding to emotionally experience specific memories/predictions • Being deprived of the possibility To regulate emotional arousal To use problem solving capacities To be in touch with one’s unique present experience

  32. 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

  33. Thank you

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