General cognitive ability, as assessed by self-reported ACT scores, is associated with reduced emotional responding: Evidence from a Dynamic Affect Reactivity Task

Dual process theories often contrast a hot, reactive affective system with a cool, reflective cognitive system. The cognitive system permits rationality and reasoning, but may inhibit spontaneous affect. Such frameworks would seem to suggest that individual differences in general cognitive ability, which is linked to abstract forms of reasoning, may impact dynamic components of emotional reactivity. In two studies involving five samples (total N = 631), participants were asked to continuously rate their emotional experiences in response to presented affective images. General cognitive ability, assessed, by proxy, with self-reported ACT scores, was linked to less intense peak reactions, peak reactions that were delayed, and/or to velocities of affect change that were less pronounced. Such relationships tended to be observed regardless of whether images were positive or negative. The findings provide support for dual process theorizing and suggest that general cognitive ability modulates dynamic components of emotional responding.