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CU-Boulder PSYC 2841 - fixing our focus; training attention to regulate emotion

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Fixing our focus: Training attention to regulate emotionHeather A. Wadlinger and Derek M. IsaacowitzDepartment of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MAAbstractEmpirical studies have frequently linked negative attentional biases with attentional dysfunctionand negative moods; however, far less research has focused on how attentional deployment can bean adaptive strategy that regulates emotional experience. We argue that attention may be aninvaluable tool for promoting emotion regulation. Accordingly, we present evidence that selectiveattention to positive information reflects emotion regulation, and that regulating attention is acritical component of the emotion regulatory process. Furthermore, attentional regulation can besuccessfully trained through repeated practice. We ultimately propose a model of attention trainingmethodologies integrating attention-dependent emotion regulation strategies with attentionnetworks. While additional interdisciplinary research is needed to bolster these nascent findings,meditative practices appear to be among the most effective training methodologies in enhancingemotional well-being. Further exploration of the positive and therapeutic qualities of attentionwarrants the empirical attention of social and personality psychologists.Keywordsemotion regulation; attention; attention training; selective attention; meditationAttention is a most valuable instrument that serves as a telescope through which we select,bring into focus, and magnify the stimuli we experience in our world (Wallace, 1999). InPrinciples of Psychology, William James writes, “My experience is what I agree to attend to.Only those items which I notice shape my mind - without selective interest, experience is anutter chaos” (1890, p. 402). As James suggests, without our ability to use attention as a toolto hone specific aspects of our experience, we would be lost in superfluous information.Salient sensory, emotional, and mental information is filtered, processed, and analyzedthrough various attentional processes, which can be automatically or consciously regulated(Calvo & Nummenmaa, 2007). Clearly, what we attend to can shape our experiences, goodor bad. How successful individuals are at influencing their attentional processes can dictatetheir subsequent affective experience and behavioral trajectories. Although individualdifferences exist in the ability to regulate attention, recent literature has suggested that theprocesses involved in attentional regulation can be trained and improved through repeatedpractice (Lutz, Slagter, Dunne, & Davidson, 2008; Rueda, Rothbart, Saccomanno, & Posner,2007). If attention can be trained, then it may be used to actively guide individuals’ emotionregulation processes and downstream behavior, ultimately enhancing subjective well-being.That is, people could learn to selectively attend to specific types of information in theservice of optimizing their emotional experience.Please address correspondence to: Derek M. Isaacowitz, Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, MS 062, Waltham,Massachusetts 02454-9110. [email protected] Wadlinger is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Prevention Research Center and the Methodology Center at ThePennsylvania State University.NIH Public AccessAuthor ManuscriptPers Soc Psychol Rev. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 February 1.Published in final edited form as:Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2011 February ; 15(1): 75–102. doi:10.1177/1088868310365565.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptThis paper considers how attention can be trained as a way to regulate emotional experience.We will first examine the role of attentional deployment as an emotion regulation strategy.Accordingly, we will present evidence that selective attention patterns not only reflectemotion regulation, but that they can also actively influence the emotional response process.We will draw evidence from a wide array of cognitive, experimental, and clinical sourcesincluding studies that investigate gaze patterns, implicit learning, clinical interventions, andmeditative practices. Reviewing relevant literature on attention training methodologies, wewill attempt to integrate the findings from these different subdisciplines. Most importantly,using Posner and Petersen’s (1990) attentional networks as a foundation, we propose a newmodel of attention training methods that elucidates what unique types of attention-basedemotion regulation strategies comprise different training techniques as well as whatcomponents of attentional processes may be recruited and modified by each type of training.Next, we consider which method of training attention can be used to most optimally improveemotion regulation. Although not frequently investigated in social psychological research,one type of attention training method, meditative practice, stands out in our model as beingparticularly promising in improving emotion regulation. Ultimately, we suggest that furtherinterdisciplinary research between clinical, cognitive, social, developmental, andcontemplative fields will help to both elucidate the mechanisms behind how attentionalprocesses may facilitate emotion regulation and clarify which types of training methods maywork most effectively for specific populations.The Role of Attention in Emotion RegulationDefining Emotion RegulationIn this paper, we utilize a functionalist perspective in which emotions are viewed asadaptive, behavioral, and physiological response tendencies enhancing individuals’ physicaland social fitness (for a review see Keltner & Gross, 1999; cf. Barrett, 2006). Theseresponse tendencies are malleable, transient, and may be modulated by individuals; in otherswords, they can be regulated (Gross, 1998).The goal of emotion regulation need not only be to decrease negative emotion and increasepositive emotion; depending on the situation, one may wish to increase or initiate negativeemotion and stop or decrease positive emotion (Gross, 1998; Tamir, Chiu, & Gross, 2007).Therefore, the interplay of how individuals transition between negative and positive statesmay be critical in defining successful emotional regulation (Diamond & Aspinwall, 2003).For instance, positive emotions facilitate psychological and physiological recovery fromnegative emotional experiences (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998; Fredrickson, Mancuso,Branigan, & Tugade, 2000). Emotion regulation might therefore be best defined


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