High levels of alexithymia are typically associated with impaired memory for emotional, but not neutral words. We conducted two experimental studies to establish if this effect generalises to non-v...

Alexithymia and emotion regulation are closely related to internet addiction. However, no research has examined how the different components of alexithymia are associated with cognitive emotion regulation in the context of multi-strategy use in internet addiction. The current study aimed to investigate the relation between alexithymia and cognitive emotion regulation in individuals with internet addiction via network analysis. Participants included 560 students with Young’s Internet Addiction Test scores greater than 50 points; they were also asked to complete the Toronto Alexithymia (...) Scale and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The results revealed two bridge nodes emerging within the combined alexithymia and cognitive emotion regulation network model: “catastrophizing” and “externally oriented thoughts.” These findings indicate a more specific relation between alexithymia and cognitive emotion regulation and provide empirical evidence for targeted prevention and targeted interventions for internet addiction. (shrink)

Background: Previous studies have found that alexithymia plays an important role in the pathogenesis of Internet addiction. However, the effect of alexithymia on both metacognition and Internet addiction has yet to be examined.Methods: The Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Metacognition Questionnaire, and Internet Addiction Test were used to assess a sample of 356 college students. A parallel mediator effect analysis was applied to test the hypothesis that metacognition mediates the relationship between alexithymia and Internet addiction.Results: The parallel multiple mediator models showed that (...) alexithymia predicted the five dimensions of metacognition and Internet addiction, and that three dimensions—cognitive confidence, positive beliefs about worry, and the need to control thoughts—partially mediated this relationship.Conclusion: Alexithymia could directly and indirectly predict Internet addiction via metacognition. (shrink)

Alexithymia is characterised by difficulties in identifying, recognising, and describing emotions. We studied alexithymia in the context of speech comprehension, specifically investigating the incongruent condition between prosody and the literal meaning of words in emotion-based discourse. In two experiments, participants were categorised as having high or low alexithymia scores based on the TAS-20 scale and listened to three-sentence narratives where the emotional prosody of a key phrase or a keyword was congruent or incongruent with its literal meaning. The incongruent condition (...) resulted in slower reaction times and lower accuracy in recognition of emotions. This incongruence effect was also evident for individuals with high alexithymia, except for anger. They recognised anger as accurately in both congruent and incongruent conditions. Contrary to our hypothesis, however, individuals with high alexithymia did not show an overall difference in emotion recognition compared to the low alexithymia group. These findings highlight the nuanced relationship between emotional prosody and literal meaning, offering insights into how individuals with varying levels of alexithymia process emotional discourse. Understanding these dynamics has implications for both cognitive research and clinical practice, providing valuable perspectives on speech comprehension, especially in situations involving incongruence between prosody and word meaning. (shrink)