Cognitive explanations Flashcards
Emotions can be rational
emotions are based on actual events and substantiative beliefs (always a response to the environment)
- they help individuals function effectively in the environment (respond congruently with environment)
- emotions can systematically guide or disrupt cognitive processes –> context determines this (no definitive answer which one comes first)
- certain brain areas where cognition and emotion is involved to allow us to talk about how we feel
Neurobiology of emotion-cognition interactions
neural correlates of E-C interactions in terms of: eg. how one impacts the other? emotion on cognition cognition on emotion individual differences
Distinction between emotional and cognitive brain is fuzzy and context dependent
- Dolcos et al (2011) - neural correlates of emotion-cognition interaction in terms of:
1) emotion on cognition - perception and attention
- memory
- decision making
2) cognition on emotion - emotion regulation
- emotional distraction
3) individual differences - personality
- sex
- age
Thinking influences our experience of emotions
- Mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1980)
- phobias?
liking occurs before and independently of cognition whether something is good or bad is an unconscious evaluation
(feeling in the absence of cognition. Preferences need no inferences)
This extends beyond liking to PHOBIAS:
- Ohman &Soares (1994) found that snake and spider phobias showed increase physiological reactions and negative emotion to subliminally presented photos of spiders and snakes
- Soussigan et al(2010 -found unconscious/ subliminal fear cues increased negative appraisals of food stimuli in patients with anorexia
Thinking influences our experience of emotions
- Appraisal theory (Lazarus, 1982)
= thought is a necessary condition of emotion
- appraisals cause (or at least precede) emotional experience
- emotions are subjective (we can react differently to same stimulus eg. seeing a dog - some happy/ some not) (KEY IDEA) - to prompt emotion, an event must be evaluated (cognitively appraised) in relation to the person’s wellbeing
- appraisals do not necessarily imply awareness of factors related to the object or event (ie. Zajoncs preferences are also cognitive)
Thinking influences our experience of emotions
- Dual process theories (LeDoux, 1980)
Both appraisal theory and mere exposure effect are correct: we feel fast (zajonc) and we feel slow (lazarus)
- we have a fast/ unconscious system and a slower/ controlled/ conscious system (eg. implicit and explicit attitudes)
- Interaction between fast processing (amygdala) and a slower, more elaborate, representation (Associated with neocortex = more evolutionary advancement)
Appraisal theories of emotion (Ellsworth, 2013)
- emotions are adaptive
- emotions are multidimensional
- emotions arise from the organisms perception of environmental changes
- Appraisals are influenced by temperatures, culture, individual differences, experiences and goals
Appraisal theories stipulate:
a) construction of meaning of the situation
b) elements of the emotional experience such as: novelty, valence, certainty, goals, agency and control
(tend to construct meaning from the emotion we feel)
- several features influence emotional experience eg. bodily reactions, facial experessions, action tendencies, cultural norms, social interactions
Nummenmaa et al (2014)
- report where in the body we see emotion (eg. anger = top of the head) using heat maps = informs how we are feeling when we get sensations in certain part of the body
Emotions influence WHAT we think
- do emotions of the same valence have the same effect? -study?
- emotions of the same valence may not have the same effect
eg. effects of anger and sadness differ in assessment of control and attributions of responsibility - Lerner et al(2013) examined the effect of fear and anger on perceptions of future risks related to terrorist attacks after 9/11
angry ps estimated less risk (anger associated with low uncertainty) eg, if you know who did attack
scared ps estimated more risk (fear associated with high uncertainty)
2 types of emotion
1) integral emotion = feelings caused by or related to the decision at hand or the cognitive task eg. fear of losing money when deciding between investments
2) incidental emotion = feelings unrelated to the cogntiive process eg. feeling happy over good news during an exam (Lerner et al 2015; Blanchett et al, 2013)
Theories for emotions influence WHAT we think
Network theory/ affect priming (Bower, 1981)
Feelings as information (Clore, 1983)
Effects of emotions on Judgement (Blanchette & Richards, 2010)
Effects of emotions on decision-making (Blanchette & Richards, 2010)
Hedonic contingency model (Wegener & Petty, 1994)
Somatic markers hypothesis (Bechara & Damasio, 2005)
Emotions influence HOW we think
effect of processing style on reasoning
1) feelings as info
- systematic (negative mood) OR heuristic (positive mood)
2) Hedonic contingency
- systematic (positive mood) OR heursitic (negative mood)
- emotion-imbued choice model (Lerner et al, 2015)
Thinking influences our experience of emotions
- key theories
mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1980)
appraisal theory (Lazarus, 1982)
Dual process theories (LeDoux, 1980)
Emotion influences WHAT we think
- Network theory/ Affect priming (Bower, 1981)
emotions are nodes in a semantic network
- mood influences:
1) memory (eg, mood-state-dependent-memory)
2) cognitive processing (eg. negative emotion associated to pessimistic cognition)
Indirect effect:
mood –> mood-congruent thoughts –>judgements
However,
mood-congruent memories can be retrieved (eg. recalling a happy event when sad)
Emotion influences WHAT we think
Feelings-as-information
(Clore, 1983)
feelings provide a rapid information source about our environment
feelings can act as heursitics when making judgements eg. ‘ how do i feel about this’
Direct effect:
mood –> judgements
however, mood can have little impact on more general thoughts and beliefs eg. political orientation
Emotion influences WHAT we think
Effects of emotion on judgement
Effects of emotion on decision-making
mood –> judgement (likelihood of event) –> decisions
- availability heuristic - you form estimates of likelihood based on how easily you can retrieve instances from memory
Emotional events are more memorable but not necessarily more frequent
- mood increases the availability of mood-congruent info eg. positive mood increases the accessibility of positive events, so you judge positive events as more probable
Decision-making
- negative mood:
anxiety (trait and state) associated with risk aversion
sadness tends to increase risk tolerance or risk seeking
- positive mood:
linked to higher risk aversion, especially when odds of losing were high (Isen et al, 1988)
positive outcomes should seem more likely (affective priming)
positive mood should signal safety (feelings as info)
–> decisions based on perceived utility (ie how much person will gain/ lose); emotional motives (if we have a lot to lose = avoid risk)
Emotion influences WHAT we think
Hedonic contingency model (Wegener & Petty, 1994)
people are motivated to achieve and maintain pleasant moods
- when we feel good = more to lose, and spend more time thinking about consequences of our actions
- study:
when people were asked to choose between different activities, happy people paid more attention to how the proposed activity made them feel (=motivated to maintain positive mood)
Emotion influences WHAT we think
Somatic markers hypothesis (Bechara & Damasio, 2005)
- task used to study this?
Iowa gambling task: choosing from different card decks which have immediate rewards (large/ small) and unpredictable losses (large/small)
- p’s learn to avoid risky decks that lead to bigger losses
- p’s produce skin conductance responses when an outcome is a loss (trust your gut/ cardiac feedback) = responses occur when a risky option is being considered
= helps us understand how emotions are linked with decision making
- results from 3 balloon analogue risk tasks showed skin conductance didn’t guide decision making (Wright & Rakow, 2017)
Emotions influence HOW we think
- 2 processing styles?
negative emotions = narrow attentional focus and promote deliberate, systematic and analytical thinking
positive emotions = broaden attentional focus and promote use of heuristic and stereotypic thinking
effect of processing style on reasoning
Processing style: FEELINGS AS INFO:
1) Systematic (negative mood, Bless et al, 1990)
- reasoning about deep features (eg. strength of an argument)
2) Heuristic (positive mood, Worth & Machine, 1987)
- reasoning about superficial features
Feelings-as-info:
- unpleasant mood signals conditions are problematic
- pleasant mood signals conditions are safe/ bengin
Processing style: Hedonic contingency
1) Systematic (Positive mood) = want to protect postiive mood
- p’s in a positive mood process uplifting messages more systematically than depressing messages (Wegener et al, 1995)
2) Heuristic (negative mood) = impulsive to sort problem ASAP
- Angry p’s were more likely than sad p’s to be influenced by stereotype when judging student misbehaviour (Bodenhausen, 1994)
Hedonic continency:
- if we think the task will be pleasant = systematic
- negative or neutral tasks threaten positive mood and lead to shallow processing
Emotion-imbued choice (EIC) model
Lerner et al, 2015
general model of affective influences on decision- making
- model doesn’t account for reflexive behaviour eg. visceral influences like freezing/ jumping back
- emotion is considered in 2 ways:
1) emotions felt at time of decision
2) expected emotions (evaluated on utility)
current emotions (emotion at time of decision) –> conscious and/or non-conscious eval –> decision –> expected outcomes
-influenced by:
incidental influences eg. mood/ weather
characteristic of decision eg. personality/ preference
characteristic of options eg. likelihood/ time of day
our current emotion can affect our expected emotion, as well out expected emotion affecting out current emotion
Role of positive emotions (Frederickson, 1998)
Expected emotions - brickman(1978) study
Affective forecasting errors
positive emotions associated with positive outcomes
such as: health, wellbeing and success (Lyubomirsky et al, 2005)
- positive emotions broaden attention (free to explore) and encourage cognitive flexibility (promote creativity, ‘we’ instead of ‘me’)
- broadened cognition help to build resources:
physical (warding off cold)
psychological
social (giving and receiving social support)
Expected emotions
- simulation of experiences and associated emotions before and after they happen eg. emotion and future-oriented (Marroquin et al, 2016)
- mental time travel - look to past via memories and to future via what we expect
- Brickman et al (1978) who is happier?
a) lottery winners
b) accident victims
found: lottery wiinners overestimate happiness, and accident victims underestimate = therefore feel happier
Affective forecasting errors (Wilson & Gilbert, 2005)
- impact bias = consistent overestimation of the intensity and duration of future emotion
- psychological processes = reduce the impact of emotional experience eg. adaptation over time, assimilation of info
- forecasted feelings - decisions made on reaching maximum pleasure and minimum pain
- faulty predictions - these can be the base of our decisions
- -> are forecasting errors useful?
- we tend to predict the right emotion
- overestimation can be functional
- -> overestimating positive feelings can be motivating
- -> anticipated regret is a powerful force in guiding behaviour
- we probably learn anyway
- we’re likely to get more accurate at predicting feelings
- forecasting errors are more of a problem for novel events
Issues in appraisal theories? (Ellsworth, 2013)
Issues in appraisal theories (Ellsworth, 2013)
- do appraisals cause emotions?
appraisals precedes emotional experience = appraisal change is emotional change eg. appraisal of a novel situation involves physiological changes
- labelling emotional experiences
basic emotions can be a combination of appraisals
appraisals of emotional experiences are a continuous process, independent of labels
- language constraints
accessibility + communication
difficult to explain emotion with words
= difficult to research
- automatic emotional responses
automatic responses reduce accessibility to component appraisals
