Working Memory Load Reduces the Electrocortical Processing of Negative Pictures but Accentuates Their Processing at Subsequent Viewing.

Cognitive load can reduce attention to negative stimuli, but its utility as an emotion regulation strategy may depend on whether it functions like avoidance, leading to short-term reductions in stimulus salience that nonetheless preserve or even heighten response to stimuli at subsequent encounters. Here, 73 participants performed a working memory task interspersed with negative and neutral pictures, prior to viewing the same pictures again alongside new negative and neutral pictures in a surprise recognition task. During the first task, working memory load reduced picture processing, replicating prior findings. During the second task, negative pictures that had previously been presented under high-load and new negative pictures were processed similarly, receiving more attentional resources than negative pictures that had been presented under low-load. Subjective picture ratings showed similar results, with negative pictures that had previously been presented under high-load rated as more arousing than those that had been presented under low-load, and indistinguishable from new negative pictures. Negative pictures that had previously been presented on high-load compared to low-load trials also had lower recognition accuracy. The overall direction of effects differed for neutral compared to negative pictures, but pictures that had been presented under high working memory resembled new pictures in the responses they elicited across both picture types. For negative stimuli, results suggest a mechanism through which disengaged emotion regulation strategies may fail to attenuate and may even increase emotional responses to stimuli when encountered again outside of the initial regulation context.