Exaggerating Emotions: Physiological Correlates and Cognitive Consequences

1
Exaggerating Emotions Physiological Correlates
and Cognitive Consequences Brandon J. Schmeichel,
Jennifer L. Robinson, and Heath A.
Demaree Department of Psychology Case Western
Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106-7123
(email schmeichel_at_psy.fsu.edu or
had4_at_po.cwru.edu)
HYPOTHESIS 2 was that exaggerating responses
would be associated with poorer verbal and
figural fluency following the exaggeration
attempt. We performed a 2 (Film Clip Type) x 2
(Viewing Instructions) MANOVA on z-transformed
scores on the verbal and figural fluency tests.
Although performance on both of the cognitive
tests was influenced by the viewing instructions,
F (1, 95) 7.91, p lt .01, planned comparisons
revealed that exaggerating negative responses
impaired both figural and verbal fluency whereas
exaggerating positive responses did not alter
fluency performance. Exaggerating disgust
responses resulted in fewer figures generated on
the subsequent figural fluency test (M 59.21,
SD 10.58) compared to viewing the negative
affect clip naturally (M 70.46, SD 12.24), t
(48) 3.47, p lt .01. Also, exaggerating disgust
responses had a marginal effect on subsequent
verbal fluency performance, such that
exaggerators generated fewer words (M 37.63, SD
9.25) than those in the natural viewing
condition (M 42.31, SD 8.09), t (48) 1.91,
p .06. However, exaggerating amusement
reactions did not significantly influence
subsequent verbal fluency performance (M 37.54,
SD 8.14) compared to viewing the positive
affect clip naturally (M 41.11, SD 12.33), t
(51) 1.24, p .22, although means were in the
predicted direction. Further, figural fluency
performance after the positive affect clip did
not differ between exaggerate (M 65.54, SD
9.34) and natural viewing (M 64.19, SD 11.60)
conditions, t lt 1. Thus, exaggerating positive
affect did not have reliable effects on
subsequent verbal or figural fluency. See figures
3 and 4, below.

• Abstract
• Emotion exaggeration has been an understudied
  affect regulation strategy. The present research
  explored physiological (autonomic) correlates and
  cognitive consequences of exaggerating positive
  and negative affect. Participants viewed either a
  disgust- or amusement-eliciting clip and were
  instructed either to react naturally or to
  exaggerate their emotional response. Participants
  who exaggerated their reactions showed increased
  heart rate and increased sympathovagal reactivity
  relative to participants who were not instructed
  to exaggerate their reactions. Exaggerating
  emotional responses also led to poorer
  performance on subsequent tests of verbal and
  figural fluency. The adverse effect of emotion
  exaggeration on subsequent cognition was most
  evident when participants exaggerated disgust
  reactions. Cognitive performance after emotion
  regulation supported predictions derived from the
  limited resource model of self-regulation
  (Muraven Baumeister, 2000). Further, cognitive
  deficits were not mediated by the increased HR
  and increased sympathovagal reactivity associated
  with exaggeration.
• Introduction
• Importance
• Exaggerating emotional responses may be a
  useful interpersonal tool
• Example I really like
  your new haircut!
• However, actively exaggerating responses may
  have undesirable consequences.
• Physiological Increased autonomic nervous
  system arousal
• Cognitive Controlling emotions may deplete
  limited regulatory resources
• Thus, we assessed physiological and cognitive
  effects of exaggerating emotional responding.
• Hypotheses
• 1 Active emotion exaggeration will be
  associated with increased sympathetic nervous
  system arousal (shorter intervals between heart
  beats, higher ratio of sympathetic to
  parasympathetic activation), similar to the
  arousal observed when people try to suppress
  emotional reactions (e.g., Gross, 1998).
• 2 Exaggerating emotional reactions (both
  positive and negative) will lead to poorer
  performance on subsequent tests of high-level
  cognitive control because emotion regulation
  depletes limited self-regulatory resources
  (Muraven Baumeister, 2000). Specifically,
  verbal and figural fluency should suffer after
  active emotion exaggeration.
• Study
• Participants/Design
• One hundred eleven undergraduate students (54
  females and 57 males) at CWRU participated in
  exchange for course credit. Data from 8
  participants were discarded because of unreadable
  or incomplete physiological data. Participants
  were randomly assigned to condition in a 2 (Film
  Clip Disgusting or Amusing) x 2 (Viewing
  Instructions Natural or Exaggerate)
  between-participants factorial design.

ECG. ECG data were collected at the left and
right wrists via disposable Ag-AgCl snap
electrodes (Biopac Technologies Model EL503) and
digitized at 500 samples per second onto a Dell
Optiplex GX200 computer. Data were amplified by
Biopac (Santa Barbara, CA) ECG100C amplifiers set
for a gain of 1000 and using low- and high-pass
filters of 35Hz and .05Hz, respectively. The
heart period (HP) power spectrum was computed by
Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT) and the data were
linearly de-trended using the Mindware
(Westerville, OH) HRV 1.62 computer application.
To perform HRV analyses, the Mindware program a)
identified the R-R intervals, b) detected
physiologically improbably R-R intervals based on
the overall R-R distribution using a validated
algorithm (Berntson, Quigley, Jang, Boysen,
1990), c) detrended the data using a first-order
polynomial to remove the mean and any linear
trends, d) cosine tapered the data and submitted
it to FFT and e) took the natural log integral HF
power (0.15 to 0.40Hz). HF power has been found
to be good estimates of cardiac vagal control
(Berntson et al., 1997 Task Force,
1996). Cognitive Performance Measures Verbal
Fluency The Controlled Oral Word Association
Test (COWAT Benton, Hamsher, Sivan, 1994 ).
The verbal fluency task had participants generate
as many words as they could in one minute that
begin with a certain letter. In the next 60
seconds, tell me as many words as you can that
start with the letter F. We had participants do
this task three times, using the letters F, A,
and S. Figural Fluency The Ruff Figural
Fluency Test (RFF Ruff, 1988). The figural
fluency test had participants draw as many unique
designs as they could in one minute based on an
arrangement of 5 dots. In the next 60 seconds,
draw as many unique (not repeated) arrangements
as you can by simply connecting the dots with
straight lines. We had participants do this task
3 times, using 3 different dot arrangements. Resul
ts and Discussion HYPOTHESIS 1 was that
exaggerating responses to positive- and negative-
affective clips would be associated with
increased sympathetic nervous system arousal. We
performed a 2 (Film Clip Type Amusement or
Disgust) x 2 (Viewing Condition Exaggerate or
Natural) MANOVA on IBI and sympathovagal balance
(LF/HF log integral LF power 0.04 to 0.15Hz
divided by HF power 0.15 to 0.40Hz. We
subtracted baseline values from during-film
values on these measures to represent
physiological reactivity to the films and viewing
instructions. No main effects or interactions
involving film clip type were observed, Fs lt
1.25, ns. The MANOVA did reveal main effects for
viewing condition on LF/HF reactivity, F (1, 99)
9.45, p lt .01, and IBI reactivity, F (1, 99)
21.90, p lt .01. Specifically, exaggerating
emotional reactions was associated with decreased
IBI (exaggerate M -3.23, SD 45.46 vs. natural
viewing M 44.06, SD 55.10) and increased
LF/HF ratios (i.e, increased sympathovagal
balance exaggerate M 1.79, SD 3.51 vs.
natural viewing M -0.31, SD 3.40). Thus,
exaggerating both disgust and amusement reactions
was associated with increased sympathetic
arousal. See Figures 1 and 2, below.
Figure 3. Figural Fluency Performance as a
Function of Film Clip Type and Viewing Condition.
Figure 4. Verbal Fluency Performance as a
Function of Film Clip Type and Viewing Condition.
Figure 1. Change in ratio of sympathetic to
parasympathetic activation.
Conclusions Exaggerating amusement and disgust
reactions was associated with increased
sympathetic nervous system arousal. Furthermore,
exaggerating disgust reactions impaired
subsequent cognitive performance measured by
tests of verbal and figural fluency. The effects
of response exaggeration mimic those of response
suppression. Both forms of response-focused
emotion regulation are associated with increased
sympathetic arousal, and both the suppression and
exaggeration of emotional responses have been
linked to decrements in subsequent high-level
cognition (see also Schmeichel, Vohs,
Baumeister, 2003). Perhaps similarities in these
two apparently disparate forms of
response-focused regulation are due to their
shared self-regulatory component.   References
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Figure 2. Change in Interbeat Interval (in ms).