We tested the association of 2 versions of the Reading Span Task of working memory capacity. a conventional neutral version (RSPAN-N) and an adapted task with incidental negative content (RSPAN-E). for predicting objective indicators (behavioral displays: autonomic activation) of negative emotion regulation during a laboratory provocation. as well as reported negative emotion in daily life experience sampling. Across 2 samples. both tasks demonstrated utility as estimates of spontaneous negative emotion regulation capacity, predicting down-regulation of negative emotion in daily life and during a lab challenge. In addition. scores from both tasks appear to be independent of self-reported distress. a confound often present in studies of emotion regulation. There was some incremental evidence that the RSPAN-E may have advantages over the RSPAN-N for predicting some indices of emotion processing. Together these findings provide further evidence for the role of working memory (among other executive-control abilities) in emotion regulatory processing and suggest that RSPAN tasks may have considerable potential as tools in research on emotion processing and emotion regulation in psychological health and adjustment.