FIGURE 1.

Procedure of the experiment. Participants were shown 24 negative and 24 neutral pictures provided with a non-reappraisal control, a rational, or a humorous comment in random order. Each picture was rated on experienced emotional valence and arousal. After picture presentation, a surprise memory test followed. In a first free recall test, participants were asked to verbally describe as many of the previously presented pictures as possible. In a subsequent recognition test, all initially presented pictures were shown again together with 48 new pictures, and participants were instructed to indicate whether a picture was old or new. In order to measure memory strength of recognized pictures, we used a successive disclosure procedure where participants were asked to press a button as soon as they were able to identify a picture as having been shown before. The picture printed here is for example only; to maintain the research value of the images in the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), we have not included actually shown IAPS pictures.