Not just emotion regulation, but cognition: An experience sampling study testing the relations of ecological interpretation biases and use of emotion regulation strategies with momentary affective states during daily life functioning.

BACKGROUND: Current research is moving from studying cognitive biases and maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) as relatively stable phenomena contributing to affective disturbances, adopting ecological methodologies, such as Experience Sampling Methods (ESM). However, there is still limited ESM evidence on the interactions between stress and ER strategies' use, and negative interpretation biases, regarding their relations with momentary affective states. In this study, we used a new ESM design to disentangle the contextual, regulatory and cognitive processes implicated in daily affective experiences. METHOD: A sample of 103 participants completed an ESM study (3 times a day for 10 days) that included self-reports of momentary affect, stress intensity, ER strategies' use and a cognitive task measuring momentary negative interpretation biases. RESULTS: Multilevel analyses supported significant interactions of both rumination and worry with stress intensity, to account for momentary higher negative and lower positive affect levels. Furthermore, higher state negative interpretation bias levels uniquely predicted both higher negative and lower positive momentary affect levels. CONCLUSION: This study implemented a novel online cognitive task within an ESM procedure, which helped to disentangle how contextual ER strategies' use and momentary cognitive biases uniquely relate to affective experiences in daily life.

An integrative analysis of potential mechanisms of reduced positive affect in daily life in depression: an ESM study.

Decreased levels of positive affect (PA) are a hallmark of depression. Current models propose as potential main mechanisms a dysfunctional use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies (i.e. dampening, positive rumination), and a maladaptive activation of pro-hedonic goals. However, the role of these mechanisms in PA in daily life remains understudied. We used a 10-day ESM design to assess how these mechanisms influence each other and contribute to depressive symptomatology-related low momentary PA in 139 individuals. Higher depressive symptoms were associated with lower PA, pro-hedonic goals, more frequent use of positive rumination, and higher use of dampening. Further, experiencing higher levels of PA predicted lower following time point use of dampening in individuals with higher symptoms. Finally, using positive rumination was more beneficial (i.e. predicted higher PA increases one moment later) for individuals with higher symptomatology. Our findings suggest that moment-to-moment changes in PA daily life are affected by, and have an effect on, both pro-hedonic goals and the use of dampening and positive rumination, highlighting specific cognitive-affective mechanisms that should be considered when designing interventions aimed at improving low PA characterising depression symptomatology.

Online Contingent Attention Training (OCAT): transfer effects to cognitive biases, rumination, and anxiety symptoms from two proof-of-principle studies.

The aim of the present research was to develop and test the efficacy of a novel online contingent attention training (i.e., OCAT) to modify attention and interpretation biases, improve emotion regulation, and reduce emotional symptom levels in the face of major stressors. Two proof-of-principle studies were carried out. In study 1, 64 undergraduates who were about to start a major stressful period (i.e., final exams) were randomized to undergo 10 days of active OCAT or a sham-control training. Emotion regulation (habitual use of rumination and reappraisal) and symptom levels (depression and anxiety) were assessed before and after the intervention. In study 2, the same 2 × 2 mixed design was used with 58 individuals from the general population undergoing a major stressful situation (the lockdown period at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020). In both studies, the OCAT group showed significant improvements on attention towards negative information and interpretation biases in comparison to the sham-control group. Additionally, changes in cognitive biases transferred to reductions of participants' use of rumination and anxiety symptom levels. These results show preliminary evidence regarding the efficacy of the OCAT to target attention and interpretation biases as well as to improve emotion regulation processes and to buffer against the effects of major stressors.

A Novel Experience Sampling Method Tool Integrating Momentary Assessments of Cognitive Biases: Two Compliance, Usability, and Measurement Reactivity Studies.

BACKGROUND: Experience sampling methods (ESMs) are increasingly being used to study ecological emotion dynamics in daily functioning through repeated assessments taken over several days. However, most of these ESM approaches are only based on self-report assessments, and therefore, studies on the ecological trajectories of their underlying mechanisms are scarce (ie, cognitive biases) and require evaluation through experimental tasks. We developed a novel ESM tool that integrates self-report measures of emotion and emotion regulation with a previously validated app-based cognitive task that allows for the assessment of underlying mechanisms during daily functioning. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study is to test this new tool and study its usability and the possible factors related to compliance with it in terms of latency and missing responses. Among the compliance predictors, we considered psychological and time-related variables, as well as usability, measurement reactivity, and participants' satisfaction with the tool. METHODS: We conducted 2 extensive ESM studies-study 1 (N=84; a total of 3 assessments per day for 5 days) and study 2 (N=135; a total of 3 assessments per day for 10 days). RESULTS: In both studies, participants found the tool highly usable (average usability score >81). By using mixed regression models, we found both common and specific results for the compliance predictors. In both study 1 and study 2, latency was significantly predicted by the day (P<.001 and P=.003, respectively). Participants showed slower responses to the notification as the days of the study progressed. In study 2 but not in study 1, latency was further predicted by individual differences in overload with the use of the app, and missing responses were accounted for by individual differences in stress reactivity to notifications (P=.04). Thus, by using a more extensive design, participants who experienced higher overload during the study were characterized by slower responses to notifications (P=.01), whereas those who experienced higher stress reactivity to the notification system were characterized by higher missing responses. CONCLUSIONS: The new tool had high levels of usability. Furthermore, the study of compliance is of enormous importance when implementing novel ESM methods, including app-based cognitive tasks. The main predictors of latency and missing responses found across studies, specifically when using extensive ESM protocols (study 2), are methodology-related variables. Future research that integrates cognitive tasks in ESM designs should take these results into consideration by performing accurate estimations of participants' response rates to facilitate the optimal quality of novel eHealth approaches, as in this study.