Jessica
Houser (4/11) Eating in response to negative emotion: implications for mood
repair and select working memory functions (Philip Wong, Ph.D.; Howard McGuire,
Ph.D.; Nicholas Papouchis, Ph.D.)
The present study examined the impact on
mood and two components of working memory, the central executive and
phonological loop, of eating chocolate after receiving an interpersonal insult.
It was predicted that consuming chocolate after insult would improve mood and
preserve working memory from emotion-related impairments. A multiethnic sample
of 60 nondieting women was randomly assigned to a 2 x 2 factorial design
crossing provocation (insult or no-insult) with eating (chocolate or
no-chocolate). All participants engaged in a decoy "second study" in
which some participants were given negative feedback about their effort on a
writing task, a manipulation that successfully elicited negative affect.
Participants in the chocolate group then consumed chocolate in five 5 g
increments throughout the remainder of the study. Mood, working memory
performance--evaluated using the Tower of London task and the Phonological
Similarity task--and attitudes toward chocolate were assessed. Overall, results
supported the immediate emotion-regulating effects of chocolate following
interpersonal insult in nondieting women. Working memory data revealed a
pattern opposite of expectations, with insulted participants exhibiting
improved phonological loop and central executive performances relative to
non-insulted participants regardless of chocolate consumption. It is suggested
that the failure of the present study to demonstrate emotion-induced decrements
in working memory may be due to the context of interpersonal insult perhaps
having motivated participants to increase effort as another means of regulating
emotion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for
emotion-regulation eating of chocolate and emotion-regulation in general.
