The relationship between dispositional cognitive reappraisal and the efficacy of a cognitive restructuring manipulation following fear conditioning

Dispositional cognitive reappraisal, an emotion regulation skill that involves reframing thoughts about a situation to improve emotional responses, may be an important factor in predicting response to cognitive restructuring. This study examines whether dispositional cognitive reappraisal skills are associated with the efficacy of a lab-based cognitive restructuring manipulation in reducing physiological conditioned fear responses. Psychiatrically healthy participants ( n = 107) completed fear acquisition on Day 1, followed by a cognitive restructuring manipulation or control task on Day 2 and a test of physiological fear responses and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire on Day 3. A significant interaction between manipulation and dispositional cognitive reappraisal skills was observed ( p < .05). Specifically, among participants who completed the lab-based cognitive restructuring manipulation, participants with low reappraisal skills showed greater decreases in conditioned fear responses than participants with high reappraisal skills. Further research is needed to replicate these findings and determine whether they would extend to clinical populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)

Cognition · Cognitive appraisal · Cognitive reappraisal · Cognitive reframing · Cognitive restructuring · Expressive Suppression · Task switching · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Mental Health Research Topics · Mind wandering and attention