ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

Acta Psychologica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (9): 1572-1588.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.1572

• Reports of Empirical Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Sustainable regulation effects of implementation intention-based reappraisal on negative emotions: Longitudinal EEG evidence

LI Yaqin1,2, DAI Jiajia1, GAO Wei1, YUAN Jiajin1,2   

  1. 1Institute for Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University
    2Sichuan Key Laboratory of Psychology and Behavior of Discipline Inspection and Supervision, Chengdu 610066, China
  • Received:2024-04-18 Published:2025-09-25 Online:2025-06-26
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC31971018);Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Planning Fund(24XJA190003);Sichuan Provincial Distinguished Youth Science Foundation(2023NSFSC1938)

Abstract:

Implementation Intention-based Reappraisal (IIR) is a novel automatic emotion regulation strategy that combines implementation intentions (if-then plans) with adaptive cognitive reappraisal to regulate negative emotions without increasing cognitive load. Moreover, this regulation effect can generalize from specified situations (i.e., if situations) to unspecified situations. However, previous studies have not focused on whether the generalization effect of IIR is sustainable. To address this gap, this study utilized EEG technology in combination with a picture-viewing task to longitudinally investigate the emotion regulation effects of IIR in the present and over the following week, using participants' self-reported valence, arousal, and late positive potential (LPP) as indicators. Subjective self-reported results revealed that, compared to the control group, the IIR group sustainably decreased valence and arousal ratings for bloody pictures (specified situations) from Day 0 to Day 7. Furthermore, the diminishing effect of IIR on arousal also consistently appeared in unspecified situations (non-bloody pictures), suggesting that the generalization effect of IIR was somewhat persistent. The event-related potential (ERP) results showed that, compared to the control group, the IIR group had smaller amplitudes of centro-parietal LPP (in the time window of 400-1500 ms) and frontal LPP (in the time window of 400-1100 ms) on Day 0, Day 3, and Day 7, suggesting that the sustainable effect of IIR was stable on LPP indicators. Additionally, there was a significant positive correlation between centro-parietal LPP (in the time window of 400-2500 ms) amplitude and arousal. Together, these findings suggest that IIR exhibits sustainable regulation and generalization effects on negative emotions. This study provides additional evidence supporting the stability and effectiveness of IIR in emotion regulation. In addition, these findings contribute to advancing the theory of automatic emotion regulation.

Key words: emotion regulation, implementation intention-based reappraisal, sustainable effect, generalization effect, late positive potential