9. Emotions Flashcards
Good idea to look at slides. A lot of specific case examples
Basic emotions
= unconditioned emotional response systems of the brain
–> Ancient caudal and medial subcortical regions
Who has the capacity for experiencing basic emotions?
All Vertebrates (at least)
Why study animal emotions?
- Useful for:
- evolutionary zoology
- affective neuroscience
- comparative psychology
- psychopharmacology
- animal welfare science
Past research: Many indicators of negative emotions (easier to study), but few of valence
–> Positive vs negative emotions
–> Promote positive welfare
Animal Welfare
Good physical AND psychological health
- Public concern about animal welfare
–> Attribution of mental states to animals
Emotion
Short term
Specific event
Facilitate responses to stimuli
Mood
Long term
Diffuse
Informs about expectations
Affective states
Emotions and mood. Emotions can accumulate into mood
Constructs –> conceptual ways to think about the functions and organisation of subjective states, rather than hard-and-fast biological entities
Multicomponent response.
4 components:
- Neuro-physiological
- Behavioral
- Cognitive
- Subjective
Multicomponent response: Neuro-physiological
Heart rate and variability
respiration rate
skin temperature
electrodermal response
neuroendocrine activity
Multicomponent response: Behavioral
Body posture
Ear and tail movements and postures
Body movements
Vocalisation rate
Multicomponent response: Cognitive
Appraisal processes
Attention
Memory and judgement biases
Multicomponent response: Subjective
Feeling in humans (no access in animals)
Translating emotion contexts
Fitness/approach and avoidance (function of emotions): Intuitive inference
Positive emotion –>
approach behavior towards stimuli that enhance fitness («rewards»)
Negative emotion –> Avoidance behavior when encountering stimuli that threaten fitness («punishers»)
Translating emotion concepts
2 main frameworks adapted from human psychology
- Discrete emotions theory: Discrete emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness)
- Dimensional approach (‘psychological construction approach’): Two main dimensions (arousal and valence)
Discrete emotions theory: advantages and disadvantages
Advantage: labels –> animal welfare
Disadvantage: Cultural differences in labels, risks of anthropomorphism
–> Human emotions animals might not have
–> Animal emotions humans might not have
Dimensional approach: advantage and disadvantage
Valence (positive vs negative) and arousal (high or low)
Valence = positive vs negative
Arousal = bodily activation
Advantage: avoids the risks of anthropomorphism
Disadvantage: some emotions (e.g. fear and pain) might be confounded
How to translate emotion indicators?
–> Construct validity
5 methods:
- Use indicators already validated in the litterature for your species
- Assessing whether some measures track self-reported affective states in humans
- Assessing whether some measures change animals exposed to stimuli that they prefer or avoid/ancestrally fitness-boosting or fitness-harming situations
- Assessing whether some measures change in animals given affect-modulating drugs
Method 5: Assessing whether some measures reliably co-vary with pre-validated affect indicators
–> Within a framework (discrete or dimensional approach)
–> Ideally, several methods should be used
Construct validity: Method 1
Use indicators already validated in the litterature for your species
Make sure you check how robust it is (e.g no circular argument)(if A, then B. if B, then A)
–> There is clear evidence suggesting that ‘Smile’ is associated with positive emotions in crested black macaques
Construct validity: Method 2
Assessing whether some measures track self-reported affective states in humans
‘Smile’ passes test 2:
- Humans in states of positive affect will show increases amounts of ‘smile’, while humans in states of negative affect will show decreased amounts
–> we assume that ‘Smile’ in creasted black macaques is also associated with positive emotions
Assumption:
- Precise and truthful self-report in humans
- Biological homology of responses across species –> fails when responses are unique to a particular species or taxonomic group
Construct validity: Method 3
Assessing whether some measures change in animals exposed to stimuli that they prefer or avoid/(ancestrally) fitness boosting or fitness-harming situations
‘Smile’ passes test 3:
- Individuals in preferred situations/that would promote fitness will show increased amounts of ‘Smile’, while those in aversive situations (avoided)//that would threaten (ancestral) fitness will show decreased amounts
Assumptions:
- Affective states have evolved to promote (ancestral) fitness (survival and reproduction)
- Positive affective states promote approach/seeking, and negative affective states promote avoidance/escape
Construct validity: Method 4
Assessing whether some measures change in animals given affect-modulating drugs
‘Smile’ passes test 4:
- Individuals given drugs that promote positive affect will show increased amounts of ‘Smile’, while those given drugs that decrease positive affect or trigger negative affect will show decreased amounts
Assumptions:
- Drugs have similar affective effects across species
Construct validity: Method 5
Assessing whether some measures reliably co-vary with pre-validated affect indicators
‘Smile’ passes test 5:
- Individuals displaying other validated signs of positive affect will show increases amounts of ‘Smile’, while those displaying signs of negative affect will show decreases amounts
Assumptions:
- We have well-validated indicators of affective state for our study species –> play behavior (positive), stereotypes (negative), judgement biases (+ or -)
- The indicators reflect affect with similar time courses (e.g. emotions versus moods), and have similar ceiling and floor effects, ect.
Which indicators should you collect?
Observable components
Allow us to INFER emotion –> ASSESS (not ‘measure’)
- physiological ?
- Behavioral?
- Cognitive?
Which ones are best? –> Ideal indicators
- Specific to either valence or arousal
- Non invasive
- Real time
- Can be automatised
- Cross species
- Accurate, precise and valid (sensitivity and specificity)
Observable components: Accuracy vs precision
Some can be:
- Accurate, but not precise
- Not accurate and not precise
- Precise and accurate
- Precise, but not accurate
Observable components: Reliability - Sensitivity and specificity
False negative, sick but not detected –> emotion but no vocalisation
False positive, healthy but detected as sick –> no emotion but vocalisation
