Mental imagery and emotion regulation: positively valenced distraction in the mind's eye

Abstract

Attentional distraction, or the diversion of attention away from emotionally salient stimuli towards an innocuous distractor, has been shown to regulate negative emotion. Although converging evidence has indirectly supported the use of a positively valenced imagined distractor, no existing research has used positively valenced mental imagery to distract from a threatening stimulus. To address this gap in the literature, the present investigation recruited a sample of 50 University of Manitoba students. A differential fear association was first created, followed by a distraction manipulation where participants were instructed to either attend to the stimulus presented or visualize a neutral or positively valenced distractor. It was primarily hypothesized that imagining a distracting stimulus would downregulate one’s fear response when presented with a threat cue, as measured through the skin conductance response (SCR) and self-reported fear. Additionally, positively valenced imagery was predicted to be more effective than neutral imagery in the regulation of fear. Self-report and SCR measures revealed the successful acquisition and persistence of differential fear. Whereas the self-reported fear results supported positively valenced imagery in the regulation of fear, neutral imagery was not supported. SCR results revealed that both positively valenced and neutral imagined distraction had downregulated the differential threat response, such that SCRs did not differ significantly when participants were shown a threat or safety cue. No direct evidence for the increased efficacy of positively valenced distraction was found. Together, the present investigation informs the use of an effective emotion regulation strategy for those who struggle with emotion dysregulation.