COGNITION AND EMOTION Flashcards
KEY TERMS
AMYGDALA = part of brain associated with several emotions, such as fear - front of temporal lobe
EMOTION = affective state that may be brief in duration but may be intense and often caused by a specific event
MOOD = longer lasting, less intense
AFFECT = no clear distinction between emotion and mood - “affect” used to refer to both
VALENCE = refers to dimension running from very negative to very positive
HISTORY
JAMES = Links emotional with visceral activity
LANGE = emotions result from physiological/bodily responses
JAMES-LANGE THEORY
= hypothesis on the origin and nature of emotions and is one of the earliest theories
= theory proposes that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion and physiological change is primary, and emotion is then experienced when the brain reacts to the information received via bodies nervous system
= James proposed that physiological changes precede emotions, which are equivalent to our subjective experience of physiological changes and are experienced as feelings
= People then experience some sort of physiological reaction to this stimulus which is then labelled as an emotion
CRITICISM OF JAMES-LANGE
= no alteration or emotional behaviour occurs when the viscera is totally separated from the CNS
= Various emotional and non-emotional (purely physiologic) states emerge as a result of similar visceral changes (e.g. increased heart rate may not only indicate fear, but may also be high fever)
= Components of viscera are found to be reasonably insensitive parts of the body
= Emotions and feelings may not result from visceral changes simply because visceral changes occur too slowly
= strong emotions typically attributed to specific visceral changes may not be produced if the same visceral changes are triggered through artificial means
= The action of the subcortical centres of the brain leads to emotional expression
= affective experience results from thalamic responses
CANNON-BARD
suggest emotions result when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to a stimulus - resulting in a physiological reaction
We react to stimulus and experience the associated emotion at the same time
in contrast to James-Lange, Cannon-Bard suggested that the experience of emotion was not dependent on interpreting the bodies physiological reactions - instead believed that the emotion and physical response occur simultaneously
Emotions and bodily changes do not share a cause-and-effect relationship
CRITICISM OF CANNON-BARD
Assumed that bodily responses have no influence on emotion - studies show otherwise
Used studies on animals - may not be generalised
Theory over estimated the function of the thalamus in emotional processes - other areas of brain involved
STRUCTURE OF EMOTION
- Emotions are categorical [Izard, 2007]
- Some theorists argue emotion is one type of affect [others being mood, temperament and sensation] and can be understood as being a state - we should adopt a categorical approach > distinct emotions [happiness, anger, fear, disgust and sadness]
- Dimensional theories [Barrett & Russell, 1998; Watson & Tellegen, 1985]
- Barrett & Russell = two uncorrelated dimensions, one of misery to pleasure (valence) and arousal to sleep
- Watson & Tellegen = two uncorrelated dimensions of positive and negative effect
BOTTOM-UP OR TOP-DOWN
Ochsner et al [2009] used fMRI
- Bottom-up = ppts presented with aversive photographs and told to respond naturally to the images. Brain areas activated included occipital, parental and temporal lobes + high level activation in amygdala
- Top-down = ppts told to interpret neutral images as if they were aversive. Involved dorsolateral frontal cortex, medial frontal cortex - areas associated with high level cognitive processes
NETWORK THEORY OF AFFECT - BOWER [1981]
1
BOWER [1981] + GILLIAN AND BOWER [1984]
Emotions are units or nodes in a semantic network - numerous connections to related ideas, physiological systems, events and to muscular and expressive patterns
Material is stored in a semantic network - propositions or assertions
Thought = occurs via the activation nodes within the semantic network > can be activated by external or internal stimuli
Activation from activated nodes spreads to related nodes = activation of an emotion node (e.g. sadness) leads to activation of emotion-related nodes or concepts (e.g. loss/despair) in semantic network
Consciousness = network of nodes activated above some threshold value
NETWORK THEORY OF AFFECT - BOWER [1981]
2
MOOD CONGRUENT MEMORY [MCM] = occurs when the stimulus being encoded by an individual matches the mood state of the individual performing the encoding [e.g. person reading a tragic love story is in a depressed mood state]
MOOD DEPENDENT MEMORY [MDM] = much better in MDM if there is a match between mood and state at the time of experiencing the stimulus and the mood state when trying to recall the stimulus [e.g. what was said in a heated argument would be recalled much better when the individual is angry again]
NETWORK THEORY OF EFFECT - BOWER [1981]
3
BOWER, MONTEIRO & GILLIGAN [1978]
= attempted to recreate MDM in lab settings
= Ppts read a word list in mood induced states (happy/sad)
= Ppts put back into one of these moods via hypnosis
= Recall occurs in the same mood state or in the other
= Supported MDM
UCROS [1989]
= Reviewed 40 studies of mood-state-dependent memory
= Found there was a tendency to remember better when match between the mood at learning and that at retrieval
= Effect stronger when ppts in positive mood rather than negative
= Effect stronger when the learning material has a personal relevance
KENEALY [1997]
= Noted various issues with research
= Level of learning was not assessed in most studies
= No check in some studies that the mood manipulations were successful
= Only one memory was generally used
Addressed these issues in a series of experiments
KIHLSTROM [1991]
= Suggested effects of mood state will be weaker when rich and informative cues are provided within the retrieval environment
NETWORK THEORY OF EFFECT - BOWER [1981]
SUMMARY
MOOD-STATE-DEPENDENT MEMORY = similar concept - encoding specificity
MOOD CONGRUITY = Bower, Gilligan & Monteiro [1981] - learning/retrieval better if current mood and valence of material match
THOUGHT CONGRUITY = Fortas and Locke [2005] - can affect judgement-making
SCHEMA THEORY - BECK [1976]
Some individuals have greater vulnerability than others to developing depressive or anxiety disorders
VULNERABILITY =depends on the formation in early life of certain schemas
SCHEMA = organised body of information in memory > facilitates efficient cognitive processing
= schemas influence most cognitive processes such as attention, perception, learning and retrieval of info
BECK & CLARK [1988] = schemas produce processing biases
= schemas become active and influence processing when the individual was in an anxious or depressed state
= e.g. depression and Schema - hypervalent when individual is depressed, world viewed more negatively, dysfunctional cognitions responsible for the maintenance of depression
ATTENTIONAL BIAS
Selective attention to threat-related stimuli presented at the same time as neutral stimuli
= dot probe and emotional stroop test
= MATTHEWS & MCLEOD [1985] - emotional stroop [threat words e.g. death, and neutral words e.g. table] - GAD patients slower to name the colour of threat compared to neutral words
= DE RUITER & BROSSCHOT [1994] - increased stroop interference may be the result of an attempt to avoid processing the stimulus as it includes emotionally valenced (loaded) information
INTERPRETIVE BIAS
The tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli and situations in a threatening fashion
EYSENCK, MCLEOD & MATTHEWS [1987]
= Spell auditory presented words, interpretation of homophones [dye, die; pane, pain]
= Correlation of +0.60 between trait anxiety and the number of threatening homophone interpretations
RUSTIN [1998]
= Cognitive bias questionnaire
= Depressed patients selected more negative interpretations than healthy controls
