Fade In, Fade Out: Do Shifts in Visual Perspective Predict the Consistency of Real-World Memories?

Memories of our personal past are not exact accounts of what occurred. Instead, memory reconstructs the past in adaptive-though not always faithful-ways. Using a naturalistic design, we asked how the visual perspective adopted in the mind's eye when recalling the past-namely, an "own eyes" versus "observer" perspective-relates to the stability of autobiographical memories. We hypothesized that changes in visual perspective over time would predict poorer consistency of memories. Young adults (N = 178) rated the phenomenology of and freely recalled self-selected memories of everyday events at two time points (10 weeks apart). Multilevel linear modeling revealed, as expected, that greater shifts in visual perspective over time predicted lower memory consistency, particularly for emotional details. Our results offer insight into the factors that predict the fidelity of memories for everyday events. Moreover, our results may elucidate new metrics that are useful in interpreting eyewitness testimony or experiences relayed in clinical contexts.

Discordance Indices of Stress Sensitivity and Trajectories of Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescence.

Psychiatric illness in adolescence is associated with long-term impairments, making it critical to identify predictors of adolescent psychiatric distress. Individual differences in stress sensitivity could be associated with longitudinal trajectories of internalizing symptoms. Historically, researchers have operationalized stress sensitivity by assessing either objective or subjective responses to stress. However, we posit that the relative discordance between subjective and objective responses to stress is a critical metric of stress sensitivity. We examined whether two discordance-based indices of stress sensitivity were related to one another and to trajectories of internalizing psychopathology among a sample of 101 adolescent youths (Mage = 12.80 at baseline; 55% males) across two successive stressors: the high school transition and the COVID-19 pandemic. Using latent growth curve modeling, we found that greater discordance between subjective (i.e., affective) and objective (i.e., cortisol) responses to a social-evaluative stressor was associated with higher internalizing symptoms at baseline and an accelerated symptom growth trajectory across the first year of the pandemic. In contrast, early life stress sensitivity was not associated with internalizing symptoms. Findings suggest that the discordance between objective and subjective experiences of social-evaluative stress predicts a pernicious growth trajectory of internalizing symptoms during adolescence. This work advances current methodologies, contributes to theoretical models of internalizing psychopathology, and with replication could have implications for policy and practice by identifying a key vulnerability factor that increases adolescents' psychiatric distress over time.

Interpersonal emotion regulation flexibility: Effects on affect in daily life.

Although the emotion regulation (ER) literature is vast, two emerging areas are particularly noteworthy. First, as opposed to the traditional blanket characterization of ER strategies as adaptive or maladaptive, theoretical models have highlighted the adaptability of greater ER flexibility (i.e., flexibly implementing ER strategies based on the context). Second, instead of focusing on how individuals independently regulate emotions, researchers are increasingly examining how ER can occur with the help of another person, a process known as interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). This study is the first to integrate these two emerging areas of research and to apply the two main theories of ER flexibility to investigate the effect of IER flexibility on negative and positive affect. A sample of 384 adults (Mage = 38.58 years, SD = 13.82) residing predominantly in North America completed this 14-day daily diary study. As expected, greater repertoire and greater responsivity to feedback were associated with more adaptive affective outcomes (i.e., less negative affect and/or more positive affect). However, unexpected findings also emerged: Greater context sensitivity did not significantly predict affect, and the covariation of within-strategy variability and environmental variability predicted higher negative affect. Findings provide initial evidence that IER adaptiveness is influenced by one's ability to flexibly implement IER strategies (i.e., IER flexibility). The results also highlight the components of IER flexibility (namely greater repertoire and responsivity to feedback) that predict daily adaptive affective consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Association of Emotion Regulation Flexibility and Negative and Positive Affect in Daily Life.

In contrast to traditional classifications of emotion regulation (ER) strategies as either uniformly maladaptive or adaptive, recent theoretical models emphasize that adaptability is determined by greater ER flexibility (i.e., the ability to flexibly implement and adjust ER strategies based on the context). This study is the first to empirically test the two central perspectives of ER flexibility on affect. A sample of 384 adults (M age=38.58 years, SD=13.82) residing predominantly in North America completed daily diaries for 14 days. We found evidence that theoretical components of ER flexibility, as defined by greater context sensitivity in the selection of ER strategies, greater ER strategy repertoire, enhanced responsivity to affective feedback, and ER-environmental covariation, were associated with adaptive affective outcomes (i.e., reduced negative affect and/or increased positive affect). This study highlights the importance of examining ER flexibility and its consequences as a critical component of ER. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00132-7.