Cognition And Emotion

Question 1

Emotions in Cognition

Answer 1

We know emotion is important in cognition because we can study what happens when emotional process is impaired e.g. Capgras syndrome

Question 2

Define emotion

Answer 2

Reactions to a changing and somewhat unpredictable environment and serve to prompt action

Question 3

6 universal emotions

Answer 3

Anger
Fear 
Disgust 
Surprise 
Happiness 
Sadness

Question 4

Key features of distinguishing emotion

Answer 4

1- bounded episodes when an event occurs of relevance to the organisms needs
2- prepare the organism to act
3- affect most or all bodily systems
4- establish control precedence over behaviour -prioritise actions

Question 5

Blindness and emotion

Answer 5

Blind adults show the same expression as sighted adults- a visual model of emotion is not necessary

Question 6

Cultural - Schardenfreude

Answer 6

German word for referring to the feeling of pleasure derived drone someone else’s difficulties

Question 7

James -Lange theory

Answer 7

Physiological arousal causes emotion e.g. We feel happy because we have smiled

Question 8

Cannon-Bard theory

Answer 8

Opposes James Lange theory

-the same physiological state can be associated with different emotions e.g long bridge vs short bridge

Question 9

Zajonc - primacy of effect

Answer 9

Emotional judgements are made without any cognitive process
-exposure effect is evidence- tendency for people to develop a preference for a stimulus with repeated exposure to it- even if perceived unconsciously

Question 10

Cognition primacy

Answer 10

Cognitive appraisal is fundamental to emotional experience and that you cannot separate out the cognitive aspect of emotion

Question 11

Emotion and perception

Answer 11

Emotion can effect how we perceive- weapon focus effect- fear leads to a narrowing of perception

Question 12

Mood congruent memory

Answer 12

The tendency when in a sad or happy mood to be more easily able to recall sad or happy memories

Question 13

Gillian and Bowers Network theory

Answer 13

• emotions are nodes in a semantic network
• thought occurs via activation of these nodes
• can be activated by internal or external stimuli
• activation spreads to related nodes

Memory should be best when mood at retrieval matches that at learning

Question 14

Limitations of Gillian and Bowers network theory

Answer 14

• numerous failures to obtain predicted effects
• only strong/intense moods seem to have much effect on cognition process
• too simplistic

Question 15

Vulnerability to anxiety and depression

Various cognitive biases

Answer 15

• Attention Bias - selective attention to threat related stimuli presented at the same time as neutral stimuli
• Interpretive Bias- tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli and situations as threatening
• Explicit memory bias - tendency to retrieve mostly negative rather than positive info