emotion 2 Flashcards
what are the effects of emotion on cognition?
an example?
emotional stimuli elicit automatic responses and grab attention
‘preparedness’ - evolved innate fear of phobic stimuli e.g snakes but not modern dangers
what did Winkielman find about unconscious emotion and unconsious priming effects?
strong effects of unconscious (16 secs) emotional faces on behaviour IF in a motivational state e.g thirsty
happy subliminal face then poored and drank more of drink than neutral or angry
what did Bargh find about priming effects?
temperature priming feelings
e.g warm drink make people feel kinder and cold makes meaner
what is meant by priming effects?
unconscious exposure to emotions changing behaviour
how is cognitive bias towards emotional stimuli studied and how are these tests used?
cognitive tasks with emotional aspect added to demonstrate influence of emotional stimuli on e.g memory
frequently used in clinical settings
some used as treatments to modify cognitive biases
what is attention?
what may it depend on?
a process by which specific stimuli within the external and internal environment are selected for further processing
may depend on situation and mood
3 types of tasks to look at attentional bias?
- detection task - pay attention quickly see it in array
- visual search task - detect target stimulus in array e.g sad face among happy quick response means negative attentional bias
- emotional stroop task - RT to negative and positive emotional words
what are some of the difficulties in interpreting stroop task?
- disorder related words may induce internal attention
- may induce emotional reaction that slows response
- cognitive avoidance of e.g not looking at injury words
- carry over effect from previous trials - avoided by single word at a time and following up with neutral word
describe the dot probe task to measure attention?
problems?
modifications?
whether attention captured by neutral or pos/neg either side of the dot
engagement or disengagement
put cue in front of one to see how much something captures and holds our attention
what is an attentional bias?
anxiety and depression attentional biases?
systematic tendency to attend to a particular type of stimulus over others
underlying process in range of disorders
e.g anxiety - bias for threatening info
depression - sad stimulus bias
brain structures underlying attentional biases?
what do amygdala regions lead to?
neuronal response to emotional faces in prefrontal cortex
increased interaction (upregulation of responses) between amygdala and visual cortex when presented emotional stimuli (over neutral)
amygdala lesions abolish bias for emotional words
name some factors which determine whether memory is encoded and retrieved?
salience
mood
enviro
threat
describe the weapon focus effect as an effect of attention on memory?
unable to recall much else apart from weapon
so attention and memory interact as unable to take in info other than focus
role of amygdala in memories recalled?
more activated amygdala is then better recall of memory - more activated when emotional stimulus
what does amygdala damage lead to?
reverses memory bias for emtional stimulus more activating than neutral
attend to both the same
how can fear memory traces be modified?
every time memory recalled it is reactivated and reconsolidated into LTM
can be modified by blocking reconsolidation by injecting protein synthesis inhibitor or anaesthetics during reconsolidation to prevent being stored again
what is a mood-congruent memory?
what is it hypothesised to be a factor of?
selective encoding or retrieval that occurs while the individuals are in a mood state consistent with the affective value of the material
hypothesised to be a factor of maintenance of depression as more depressed so recall more negative events
what is an explanation of mood-congruent memories?
emotions stored in semantic networks
activate one node and activation spreads to all related concepts in network
what is thought congruity?
content of thoughts are congruent with mood state
what are the effects of antidepressants on memories?
decreased recognition of negative emotional expressions
increase positive bias in attention and memory in healthy controls
what are the differences of cognitive bias in anxiety and depression?
attentional bias - lots in anxiety and a bit in depression
interpretive bias - lots in anxiety a bit in depression
memory bias - little in anxiety lots in depression
describe attentional bias modification for anxiety and depression patients?
trained to attend away from negative stimuli e.g click neutral face and ignore negative effect
can lead to reduction in symptoms
describe appraisal theories?
cognitive appraisals start the emotion process
automatically or consciously
primary - motivational relevance e.g pos/neg
secondary - resources to cope with situation
reappraisal - stimulus and coping strategies monitored
what is emotional regulation and what are the 5 stages of it?
management and control of emotional states by various processes
- situation selection - avoidance
- situation modification - bring a friend
- attention deployment - focus on positive
- cognitive change (proactive) - think differently about negative
- response modulation (reactive) - hiding emotion
what happens in the brain during emotional regulation?
distraction or reappraisal engage cognitive regions of brain (prefrontal cortex)
and deactivate emotional regions (amygdala)
study comparing distraction vs reappraisal as emotional regulation techniques?
what is the brain response?
look at pictures whilst engaging in distraction or reappraisal
negative emotions not quite as negative when using these techniques
amygdala inhibition response during both techniques
prefrontal cortex becoming active
findings for abnormal emotional regulation in depression?
say whether word seen briefly pos/neg/neu
then working memory task
amygdala response keeps on increasing even during working memory task when meant to be inhibited by cognitive areas
cognitive areas shutting down so negative relationship
what is the split in the anterior cingulate during emotional regulation?
what is it involved with?
ventral - regulation
dorsal - appraisal/expression
involved in negative emotional bias as increased response in depression and negative sitmuli
overactive in those with depression
treatments for depression to change emotional regulation?
1) TMS
2) deep brain stimulation (DBS) of ventral anterior cingulate by inserting electrodes into that area of the brain
3) brain training - activates working-memory/cognitive areas and deactivates emotional regions
what do lesions in ventromedial prefrontal cortex lead to?
impairment of emotional expression identification
impulsivesness
impairment of decision making
e.g Phineas Gage
describe the Iowa Gambling Task to demonstrate emotional learning in those with lesions and substance abuse?
2 risky decks - win or lose big
2 safer decks - reduced loses
lesions to ventromedial prefrontal cortex or those with substance dependence don’t show normal learning as pick more risky decks and lose lots of money (lesions group worse)
what is the physiological arousal in the Iowa gambling task?
increased arousal ('warning signals') when picking from 'risky' decks in controls
- known as Somatic Marker hypothesis: reactivating previous emotional response to decision
but not in lesions group of emotional brain areas
what are the results of conscious knowledge of the Iowa Gamling Task?
people with explicit knowledge of what was going on do better on game
physiological arousal higher then better they were on task
no correlation between 2 - good awareness in body and listening but others good at figuring things out (2 routes but not both)
