Browsing by Author "Lopez, Richard B."

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    Cognitive reappraisal of low-calorie food predicts real-world craving and consumption of high- and low-calorie foods in daily life
    (Elsevier, 2018) Reader, Shane W.; Lopez, Richard B.; Denny, Bryan T.
    In an increasingly obesogenic environment, an individual's regulatory capacity to pursue nutrient-rich, low-calorie foods over palatable, energy-dense items is essential to maintaining a healthy weight and preventing the detrimental health risks of obesity. Cognitive reappraisal, the process by which one changes the meaning of a stimulus by altering its emotional impact (or in this case, its appetitive value) demonstrates promise as a regulatory strategy to decrease obesogenic food consumption, but little research has directly addressed the relationship between cognitive reappraisal of food cravings and real-world eating behaviors. Additionally, research examining self-regulation of eating has typically focused exclusively on diminishing cravings and consumption of unhealthy, high-calorie foods, rather than examining, in tandem, ways to strengthen (or, up-regulate) cravings for healthier, low-calorie alternatives. In the present study, fifty-seven college aged participants first completed a cognitive reappraisal task in the laboratory in which they practiced regulating their craving responses to high- and low-calorie food items by focusing on the long-term health consequences of repeatedly consuming the pictured foods. Next, for a week following the laboratory session, participants reported daily eating behaviors via ecological momentary assessment. Participants who reported greater up-regulatory success during the reappraisal task also reported increased craving strength for low-calorie foods as well as decreased consumption of high-calorie foods in their daily lives. Greater overall regulation success also predicted more frequent consumption of craved low-calorie foods. These findings substantiate the association between cognitive reappraisal ability and real-world appetitive behaviors, and suggest that future interventions may benefit from specifically targeting individuals' evaluations of low-calorie foods.
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    Media multitasking is associated with altered processing of incidental, irrelevant cues during person perception
    (BioMed Central, 2018-10-11) Lopez, Richard B.; Salinger, Julia M.; Heatherton, Todd F.; Wagner, Dylan D.
    Abstract Background Media multitasking (MMT)—using and switching between unrelated forms of media—has been implicated in altered processing of extraneous stimuli, resulting in performance deficits. Here, we sought to extend our prior work to test the hypothesis that MMT might be associated with enhanced processing of incidental environmental cues during person perception. Method We tested the relationship between individual differences in MMT and person perception, by experimentally manipulating the relevance of environmental cues that participants could use to make trait and personality judgements of an unfamiliar social target. Relevant environmental cues consisted of neat or messy arrangements of the target’s belongings, whereas irrelevant cues consisted of similarly neat or messy arrangements of the testing room in which participants viewed a video of the target. Results In general, relevant cues affected ratings of the target’s conscientiousness. Additionally, and consistent with our hypothesis, there was a significant interaction between irrelevant cue condition and MMT, such that high media multitaskers more readily incorporated irrelevant environmental cues into their evaluations of the target’s conscientiousness. Conclusions These results suggest that high media multitaskers are more responsive to irrelevant environmental cues, which in turn can lead them to form inaccurate impressions of others.
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    Negative affect mediates the relationship between use of emotion regulation strategies and general health in college-aged students
    (Elsevier, 2019) Lopez, Richard B.; Denny, Bryan T.
    Patterns of dysregulated emotions can take a toll on both mental and physical health. Such patterns also put people at risk for affective disorders, including anxiety and depression. Early adulthood is a critical period during which affective disorders first develop, so there is a need to identify individual difference factors that predispose some young adults to develop anxiety and depression. Here, we recruited a sample of college-aged volunteers (N = 393) and assessed their use of multiple emotion regulation strategies, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and general health. We hypothesized that cognitive reappraisal would be associated with better health, via fewer reported depressive and anxiety symptoms, whereas expressive suppression would be associated with poorer health, via more depressive and anxiety symptoms. To test these hypotheses, we fit a mediation model with cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as predictors, anxiety and depressive symptoms as mediating variables, and a global health measure as the outcome. There were robust direct and indirect associations in support of our hypotheses. These results suggest that targeting emotion regulation abilities in early adulthood may be an effective strategy to reduce the risk of developing affective disorders and improve overall health.