Cited by 1,472Neural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesMemory Processes and InfluencesEmotions and Moral Behavior

Emotion regulation and memory: the cognitive costs of keeping one's cool

Richards, Jane M., Gross, James J.·2000·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Abstract

An emerging literature has begun to document the affective consequences of emotion regulation. Little is known, however, about whether emotion regulation also has cognitive consequences. A process model of emotion suggests that expressive suppression should reduce memory for emotional events but that reappraisal should not. Three studies tested this hypothesis. Study 1 experimentally manipulated expressive suppression during film viewing, showing that suppression led to poorer memory for the details of the film. Study 2 manipulated expressive suppression and reappraisal during slide viewing. Only suppression led to poorer slide memory. Study 3 examined individual differences in typical expressive suppression and reappraisal and found that suppression was associated with poorer self-reported and objective memory but that reappraisal was not. Together, these studies suggest that the cognitive costs of keeping one's cool may vary according to how this is done.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/0022-3514.79.3.410

Cites

0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Cognitive reappraisal lowers stress responses and raises tolerance for emotional stimuli, with no harmful effects.

    “For example, cognitive reappraisal strategies reduce the stress response and increase tolerance for emotional stimuli, without any detrimental effects (Gross, 1998; Richards & Gross, 2000).”
  • Response-focused strategies like suppression drain cognitive resources significantly more than antecedent-focused strategies.

    “In contrast, expressive suppression can have negative effects (e.g., Richards and Gross, 2000), which supports the view that response focused strategies like suppression drain cognitive resources significantly more compared to antecedent focused strategies (Richards and Gross, 2000).”

    From Physiological feelings (2019) · cites this paper as Richards and Gross, 2000

  • Expressive suppression can have negative effects.

    “In contrast, expressive suppression can have negative effects (e.g., Richards and Gross, 2000), which supports the view that response focused strategies like suppression drain cognitive resources significantly more compared to antecedent focused strategies (Richards and Gross, 2000).”

    From Physiological feelings (2019) · cites this paper as Richards and Gross, 2000

  • Suppression reduces memory of information conceived during suppression, implying that executive resources needed to prevent expression absorb cognitive ability to encode information.

    “Richards and Gross (2000) show that suppression reduces the memory of information that is conceived during suppression, implying that executive resources that are necessary to prevent expression absorb cognitive ability to encode information.”
  • Recognition performance of emotional stimuli seems unaffected by emotional reappraisal, whereas suppression leads to impaired recognition.

    “In addition, the recognition performance of emotional stimuli seems to be unaffected by emotional reappraisal (see [9,28] but see [29]), whereas suppression leads to impaired recognition [8,9].”

    From Effects of differential strategies of emotion regulation (2019) · cites this paper as [28]

Cites

The publisher hasn’t deposited this paper’s reference list.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J.
Affiliations
Stanford University (US)
Venue
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Published
2000-09
Volume
79
Issue
3
Pages
410-424
ISSN
  • 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1315
OpenAlex
W4241540074
Cited by
1,472
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 45 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 51 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 67 · 2020: 114 · 2019: 77 · 2018: 78 · 2017: 68 · 2016: 63 · 2015: 86 · 2014: 92 · 2013: 91 · 2012: 95
FWCI
6.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (MH 58147)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
Keywords
emotion regulation, memory, cognitive cost, emotional control
MeSH terms
Adult, Attention, Cognition, Emotions, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Repression, Psychology

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review