Social Cognition
Emotion Regulation Task
Also called: cognitive reappraisal task, reappraisal task, emotion regulation paradigm, picture reappraisal task
Measure how much rethinking a picture lowers the negative feeling it brings: a word says to look or to rethink before each picture, then participants rate how they feel.
8-10 minUntimed
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Try it here first, with no account.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 207
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 56
What it measures
Measures how much rethinking a picture lowers the negative feeling it brings. Before each picture a word says to look at it naturally or to rethink it in a way that makes it less upsetting, and the participant then rates how negative they feel. The pictures are at most moderately unpleasant, with no injury, gore or sexual content.
Constructs
- Emotion regulation
- Cognitive reappraisal
- Negative affect
- Emotional reactivity
Research uses
- Emotion regulation research at the group level
- Studies that compare reappraisal instructions or training, within a study
- Group comparisons in clinical research, without diagnostic use
How the paradigm works
The Emotion Regulation Task measures how much rethinking a picture lowers the negative feeling it brings: cognitive reappraisal, measured in the laboratory. Gross (1998) asked people to think about a disgusting film in such a way that they would feel nothing, and reappraisal lowered the disgust they reported. Ochsner, Bunge, Gross and Gabrieli (2002) brought the comparison to pictures: on Attend trials participants looked at a negative or neutral photo and let themselves feel, on Reappraise trials they reinterpreted a negative photo so that it no longer brought a negative response, and after each photo they rated how negative they felt.
More about the paradigm
On each of 30 trials a word appears for 2 seconds, Look or Rethink, and the picture follows with the word above it for 6 seconds (4 to 10 in the settings). Look means letting oneself feel whatever the picture brings up. Rethink means thinking about it in a way that makes it less upsetting, for example as a scene set up for a film, as something that will soon be cleaned up or repaired, or as something seen from far away, while keeping one's eyes on the picture. The participant then marks how negative they feel right now on a bar from 0 to 100 with no numbers shown and no starting point, with no time limit. The 10 neutral pictures always come with Look. The 20 negative pictures are split between Look and Rethink for each session: they are paired by their published unpleasantness, and one of each pair is rethought. The order has no more than three trials of one kind in a row, and three practice trials come first. The pictures come from the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (Kurdi and colleagues, 2017), only ones whose own source allows commercial use: rubbish, insects, floods, storms, fire, prison cells and, for the neutral trials, everyday objects. They are at most moderately unpleasant, with no injury, gore or sexual content, and no picture shows anyone hurt.
The main score, the reappraisal effect, is the mean rating after Look on negative pictures minus the mean after Rethink on negative pictures, in points. The task also reports negative reactivity, the mean after Look on negative pictures minus the mean after Look on neutral pictures, the three condition means and the median rating time. These are research measures of reported feeling under two instructions, and they do not diagnose. Ratings after a stated instruction can follow what a participant thinks is expected, so compare groups that had the same instructions.
Scores
- Reappraisal Effectpoints
- Mean rating after Look on negative pictures minus the mean after Rethink on negative pictures, on the 0 to 100 bar.
- Positive values mean rethinking lowered the negative feeling
- Negative Reactivitypoints
- Mean rating after Look on negative pictures minus the mean after Look on neutral pictures.
- Positive values mean the negative pictures brought a negative feeling
- Look, Neutral Picturespoints
- Mean rating after Look on neutral pictures.
- Higher means a more negative feeling
- Look, Negative Picturespoints
- Mean rating after Look on negative pictures.
- Higher means a more negative feeling
- Rethink, Negative Picturespoints
- Mean rating after Rethink on negative pictures.
- Higher means a more negative feeling
- Median Rating Timems
- Median time from the start of the rating screen to Confirm, leaving out times under 100 ms.
- Informational
- Rated Trialsitems
- Trials rated in the scored run, out of 30.
- Quality check
- Longest Run of One Ratingitems
- Most trials in a row given exactly the same rating.
- Quality check
- Anticipationscount
- Ratings confirmed within 100 ms of the start of the rating screen.
- Quality check
Use and evidence
207 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, down 5% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 139 of 495 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 51 |
| 2024 | 34 |
| 2023 | 35 |
| 2022 | 45 |
| 2021 | 42 |
| 2020 | 58 |
| 2019 | 51 |
| 2018 | 44 |
| 2017 | 39 |
| 2016 | 27 |
| 2015 | 17 |
| 2014 | 19 |
| 2013 | 13 |
| 2012 | 9 |
| 2011 | 4 |
| 2010 | 7 |
| 2009 | 7 |
| 2008 | 3 |
| 2007 | 4 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2005 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 |
| 2003 | 1 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 |
| 2000 | 0 |
Use grade C
100 to 299 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade C
At least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 5
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 27
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 56
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Pictures
- 20 negative and 10 neutral pictures from the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (OASIS), each from a source that allows commercial use: rubbish, insects, floods, storms, fire, prison cells, a power station and everyday objects. They are at most moderately unpleasant, with no injury, gore or sexual content, and no picture shows anyone hurt.
- Trial
- The instruction word alone for 2,000 ms, Look or Rethink; then the picture, up to 500 by 400 px, with the word above it, for 6 seconds (standard; 4 to 10); then the rating; then a 1,000 ms blank screen.
- Instructions
- Look: let yourself feel whatever the picture brings up, without trying to change it. Rethink: think about the picture in a way that makes it less upsetting, for example as a scene set up for a film, something that will soon be cleaned up or repaired, or something seen from far away. With both words, keep looking at the picture.
- Rating
- How negative do you feel right now? A 0 to 100 bar with no numbers shown and no starting point, from Not at all to Very negative, with no time limit.
- Conditions
- 10 trials each of Look at a neutral picture, Look at a negative picture and Rethink a negative picture. The negative pictures are paired by OASIS valence and one of each pair is rethought, drawn for each session from its seed and saved, with no more than 3 trials of one condition in a row.
- Practice
- 3 trials outside the rated set: Look at an everyday object, Look at a distant tornado and Rethink a barbed-wire fence, each followed by a note about the mark made.
Ochsner and colleagues (2002) used photos from the International Affective Picture System, whose terms bar placing them on websites (Kurdi and colleagues, 2017). These pictures come from OASIS, so published ratings do not carry over. A rating after a stated instruction can follow what a participant thinks is expected, so compare groups that had the same instructions.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: emotion_regulation_rating from the scored run, one rating per trial, with no correct answer. Fewer than 6 ratings in any of the three conditions, or the same rating on every trial, invalidate. The same rating on 15 or more trials in a row, or negative pictures rated no more negative than neutral ones under Look, is flagged for review. Ratings under 200 ms on at least half the trials invalidate.
Why these rules
There is no correct option to compare with chance, so accuracy is not judged against chance. Both scores are differences between conditions, so each condition needs enough ratings. The same exact value on every trial separates nothing, so the session is invalid. A long run of one value can be honest, since some people feel nothing about any picture, so it only flags the session (long-string checks; Curran 2016). When the negative pictures brought no more negative feeling than the neutral ones, there was nothing to lower by rethinking, so the reappraisal effect is flagged rather than read as a failure to regulate. An answer under 200 ms is faster than a simple visual reaction, so it cannot reflect the item. Following response-time effort screening for untimed tests (Wise and Kong 2005), the session is invalid only when at least half the answers are that fast. A hidden tab lets the study, delay or response timers run without the participant, so a percentile is withheld after one.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Time per picture (seconds) | 6 | 4 to 10 |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Emotion Regulation Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Gross JJ, 1998; Ochsner KN, Bunge SA, Gross JJ, Gabrieli JDE, 2002), with the standard settings (time per picture (seconds): 6). The main score was reappraisal effect (mean rating after Look on negative pictures minus the mean after Rethink on negative pictures, on the 0 to 100 bar).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Ochsner, K. N., Bunge, S. A., Gross, J. J., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2002). Rethinking feelings: An fMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(8), 1215-1229. https://doi.org/10.1162/089892902760807212
- Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224-237. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.224Reappraisal, and its effect on reported feeling.
- Kurdi, B., Lozano, S., & Banaji, M. R. (2017). Introducing the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (OASIS). Behavior Research Methods, 49(2), 457-470. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0715-3The pictures, and the valence ratings used to choose and pair them.
Source papers
- Ochsner KN, Bunge SA, Gross JJ, Gabrieli JDE (2002). Rethinking feelings: An fMRI study of the cognitive regulation of emotion. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(8):1215-1229.N 15, Adults (18 to 30)
- Kurdi B, Lozano S, Banaji MR (2017). Introducing the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (OASIS). Behavior Research Methods, 49(2):457-470.N 822, Adults
- No normative data for this task.Paradigm source, N/A
Questions
How long does the Emotion Regulation Task take?
About 8 to 10 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Untimed test: runs on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Reappraisal Effect, Negative Reactivity, Look, Neutral Pictures, Look, Negative Pictures, Rethink, Negative Pictures, Median Rating Time, Rated Trials, Longest Run of One Rating and Anticipations. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Emotion Regulation Task used in research?
207 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, down 5% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 139 of 495 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade C). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.22.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Emotion Regulation Task have?
In the published research, 5 papers report its test-retest reliability and 56 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade C in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Time per picture (seconds) (4 to 10). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
Every test: the full test list.
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