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Transdiagnostic Cognitive Control Training for Emotion-Relevant Impulsivity

Abstract

The tendency to respond impulsively to strong emotions is a surprisingly common trait across many forms of psychopathology. Emotion-relevant impulsivity is closely tied to problems with cognitive control, raising the possibility that strengthening underlying cognitive mechanisms might also reduce aspects of impulsivity. Cognitive control training programs have been used to improve emotion regulation skills in several studies (cf. Siegle, Price, Jones, Ghinassi, Painter, & Thase, 2014), but despite conceptual similarities, it is unknown whether cognitive control training might also reduce emotion-relevant impulsivity. The goal of the present study was to test whether training cognitive control through working memory and response inhibition tasks (two dimensions specifically implicated in emotion-relevant impulsivity) is efficacious in reducing emotion-relevant impulsivity transdiagnostically.

Participants (N = 52) were recruited based on self-reported tendencies to experience difficulties with impulsivity in the face of strong emotion, using the Feelings Trigger Action scale (Carver, Johnson, Joormann, Kim, & Nam, 2011). Participants were randomly assigned to either a two-week waitlist condition or to immediately begin six in-lab training sessions (including the adaptive PASAT: a working memory task, and the Go/No-Go task: a response inhibition task in each session) over the course of two weeks.

Results showed a significant reduction in emotion-relevant impulsivity from pre-training to post-training and during the two-week follow-up phase; these improvements were not observed in the waitlist control period. Participants also showed significant improvements on the working memory task, and non-significant improvements on transfer tasks of working memory and response inhibition. Results provide preliminary support for the efficacy of cognitive control training interventions that target emotion-driven impulsivity.

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