emotion and cognition

Question 1

Charles Darwin and emotion

Answer 1

first to propose a limited number of basic and universal human emotions

universality of emotional expression implies a common emotional experience

Question 2

Ekman’s study of basic emotions

Answer 2

studied facial expression of emotion
suggested there a 6 basic expressions

similar in range, appearance and interpretation across cultures
characterised by a unique subset of facial muscle movements
innate

Question 3

Ekman’s 6 basic emotions

Answer 3

anger
disgust
fear
happiness
sadness
surprise

all innate, universal and have a unique subset of facial movements

Question 4

valence

Answer 4

value we give a stimulus of whether it is good or bad

middle of continuum = no valence

Question 5

basic emotions and the brain

Answer 5

each relies on its own neural substrate
- not clearly identified for all

more complex emotions are less clearly linked to specific facial displays and neural correlates

Question 6

neural substrate of anger

Answer 6

involves many regions depending on different aspects

Question 7

neural substrate for disgust

Answer 7

insular cortex
basal ganglia

involved in experiencing and recognising disgust in all forms
- moral, social, physical etc

Question 8

neural substrate for fear

Answer 8

amygdala

those with amygdala damage struggle to perceive and recognise fear in others

also mediates valence in all cognitive domains

Question 9

neural substrate of sadness

Answer 9

reduced cortical activation and connectivity

Question 10

neural substrate of happiness

Answer 10

some candidate regions

Question 11

neural substrate of surprise

Answer 11

unknown

Question 12

perceiving basic emotions

Answer 12

involves a much wider network of brain areas

shows them interacting with each other

Question 13

dimensional approach to classify emotions

Answer 13

not experienced as an on/off but as a continuum
attempt to capture complexity of emotions

eg nervous and excited
similar emotions with high levels of arousal
but differ in valence

Question 14

arousal

Answer 14

overall term for bodily changes that occur in emotion

such as changes in heart rate, sweating and hormones

Question 15

circumplex model of human emotion

Answer 15

emotions defined and classified on a spectrum of arousal and valence

subjective experience of emotional quality, good vs bad

Question 16

Geneva Emotion Wheel

Answer 16

similar to circumplex model

but spectrum is along pleasantness and control (definition between states)

Question 17

approach vs withdrawal approach

Answer 17

classifies emotions according to motivation
different emotions lead to different goals for action

approach and withdrawal emotions

Question 18

approach and withdrawl emotions

Answer 18

approach - evoke desire to approach the stimulus (object or situation)
eg happiness, surprise and anger

withdrawl - evoke desire to withdraw from object or situations associated with these emotions
eg sadness and disgust

Question 19

manipulating emotions

Answer 19

critical form of social regulation

critical aspect of investigating the interaction of emotions and cognition for scientific study

done by:
evocative stimuli
mood induction

Question 20

evocative stimuli

Answer 20

stimuli that elicit emotional responses - evoke strong emotions

eg pictures of faces with difference emotional expressions
words that vary in valance and arousal (use of mirror neurons)

Question 21

mood induction

Answer 21

mood is a more stable state of emotion
longer lasting and not necessarily linked to a specific event or object

eg watching films, playing music
result in positive or negative mood states

Question 22

2 ways of measuring emotions

Answer 22

direct assessment
indirect assessment

Question 23

direct assessment

Answer 23

relies on introspection
affected by cultural conventions
self report measures eg questionnaires

Question 24

indirect assessment

Answer 24

assess behaviour eg decisions and physiological responses

pupil elation, skin conductance, heart rate, facial movements etc

can measure emotions with electrodes on body
peripheral nervous system also effected by emotional states
eg stress increases heart rate

Question 25

how do we learn emotions and preferences?

Answer 25

some stimuli inherently bad
but others we ascribe value based on experiences

emotional memories stronger than neutral ones
- often forget why we have an emotional association but not what it is

classical conditioning
extinction
operant condition
instructional and observational learning
mirror neurons

Question 26

how do stimuli gain or lose value?

Answer 26

emotional classical conditioning
aversive conitioning
evaluative conditioning
extinction - reversing conditioning
operant
instructional and observational
mirror neurons

Question 27

emotional classical conditioning

Answer 27

learned association between neutral event and an emotional event

2 types
autonomic - expressed through bodily responses such as an arousal response

evaluative - expressed through a preference or attitude

Question 28

autonomic (aversive) conditioning

Answer 28

amygdala mediates memory
assigns it high importance
hippocampus makes it accessible and hard to forget

amygdala and hippocampus closely connected
- interaction links certain emotions to events

Question 29

evaluative conditioning

Answer 29

learned subjective preferences or attitudes
acquired through classical conditioning

main goal of many forms of advertising

Question 30

extinction

Answer 30

reversing conditioning
learned associations can be unlearned again

if stimulus presented repeated without negative experiences

potential treatment of phobias
- unpairing response
- replace with positive association

evaluative hard to extinguish
- social bias hard to address

Question 31

instrumental/ operant conditioning

Answer 31

learned by reward and punishment

response frequency will increase or decrease depending on the outcome
develop associations fast affecting response frequency

response reward in dopamine can lead to addiction

Question 32

instructional and observational learning

Answer 32

learning by associations that haven’t been experienced

learn emotional responses to things unlikely to be experienced due to other peoples outcomes

works as evolved complex communication which allows us to experience things vicariously

Question 33

mirror neurons

Answer 33

fire when we do a task or observe another doing the same task

also mirror emotions and pain of other people due to similar brain activations

Question 34

high emotion and memory

Answer 34

highly emotional memories are hard to forget

arousal enhances consolidation

Question 35

amygdala and hippocampus in emotion

Answer 35

amygdala mediates emotional memories by integrating with the hippocampus

where physical traces of memories are made (engrams)
amygdala assigns them importance based on intensity of emotion

Question 36

stress and memory

Answer 36

can improve memory under some circumstances

emotional learning stays high with increased stress

but other types of learning decrease at very high stress levels

optimum level improves memory

Question 37

salience

Answer 37

how easy a stimulus pops into our attention

high salience is more memorable

Question 38

how does emotion effect salience?

Answer 38

emotion increases salience of stimuli
attracts more attention

means other stimuli presented at the same time get processed less and are less attended to

can facilitate (if emotion stimulus is the target) or decrease (not target) performance in tasks
eg eyewitness remembers weapon but not face

Question 39

emotional stroop task

Answer 39

similar to classic stroop test

instead of colour, highly emotional words used as distractors

more emotional the word, the harder it is to ignore it and say the colour
- results in larger error rates and longer reaction times

Question 40

affective primacy hypothesis

Answer 40

proposes that emotional stimuli are processed relatively automatically
fewer demands on limited cognitive resources
- more bottom up processing

Question 41

support for the affective primacy hypothesis

Answer 41

emotional faces stand out in a crowd - pay more attention to them