Procedure
sensations
Participants began by completing the PANAS questionnaire. Next, they recalled times when
they felt scared, distressed or unhappy. Some examples were given (e.g., finding out
someone close to you had died, failing an exam, and being let down by a friend).
Participants then ordered their memories from least emotive to most emotive, and the three
most emotive were used in the study.Participants in the narration condition completed a practice task of verbalising the act
of cutting up a lemon, focusing on including all the details of the task in the correct
sequence. Participants in the imagery condition imagined cutting up a lemon, focusing on
bringing to mind all the sensory details—the tangy smell, the rough skin and so on—as
vividly as possible.Next, participants put their assigned training into practice by recalling the least
emotive of their three chosen negative memories for 1 min by either narrating or
visualising the memory. In the narration condition, participants narrated their memory
aloud into a voice recorder placed on the desk in front of them, focusing on giving a
complete and accurate account of what happened. Participants in the imagery condition
brought their memory to mind, reliving the experience as vividly as possible by focusing
on feelings and sensations. After 1 min, participants rated the current emotional
intensity of the memory and the quality of recall. This procedure was repeated for the
remaining two memories, finishing with the most emotional memory.When participants had recalled all three memories, they had a 1-min break and then
repeated the task of visualising or narrating each memory, with instructions to try harder
at focusing on the wording of their narrative in the verbal condition or to try harder at
focusing on feelings and sensations to make the image as vivid as possible. Upon
completion of the final negative memory recall, participants completed the PANAS for a
second time.Then, to counteract any negative effects on mood, participants generated three positive
memories and either narrated or visualised their memories (depending on their condition).
The session concluded with participants completing the PSIQ and answering the demand
question.