emotion and cognition Flashcards
Charles Darwin and emotion
first to propose a limited number of basic and universal human emotions
universality of emotional expression implies a common emotional experience
Ekman’s study of basic emotions
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
Ekman’s 6 basic emotions
anger
disgust
fear
happiness
sadness
surprise
all innate, universal and have a unique subset of facial movements
valence
value we give a stimulus of whether it is good or bad
middle of continuum = no valence
basic emotions and the brain
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
neural substrate of anger
involves many regions depending on different aspects
neural substrate for disgust
insular cortex
basal ganglia
involved in experiencing and recognising disgust in all forms
- moral, social, physical etc
neural substrate for fear
amygdala
those with amygdala damage struggle to perceive and recognise fear in others
also mediates valence in all cognitive domains
neural substrate of sadness
reduced cortical activation and connectivity
neural substrate of happiness
some candidate regions
neural substrate of surprise
unknown
perceiving basic emotions
involves a much wider network of brain areas
shows them interacting with each other
dimensional approach to classify emotions
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
arousal
overall term for bodily changes that occur in emotion
such as changes in heart rate, sweating and hormones
circumplex model of human emotion
emotions defined and classified on a spectrum of arousal and valence
subjective experience of emotional quality, good vs bad
Geneva Emotion Wheel
similar to circumplex model
but spectrum is along pleasantness and control (definition between states)
approach vs withdrawal approach
classifies emotions according to motivation
different emotions lead to different goals for action
approach and withdrawal emotions
approach and withdrawl emotions
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
manipulating emotions
critical form of social regulation
critical aspect of investigating the interaction of emotions and cognition for scientific study
done by:
evocative stimuli
mood induction
evocative stimuli
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)
mood induction
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
2 ways of measuring emotions
direct assessment
indirect assessment
direct assessment
relies on introspection
affected by cultural conventions
self report measures eg questionnaires
indirect assessment
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
how do we learn emotions and preferences?
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
how do stimuli gain or lose value?
emotional classical conditioning
aversive conitioning
evaluative conditioning
extinction - reversing conditioning
operant
instructional and observational
mirror neurons
emotional classical conditioning
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
autonomic (aversive) conditioning
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
evaluative conditioning
learned subjective preferences or attitudes
acquired through classical conditioning
main goal of many forms of advertising
extinction
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
instrumental/ operant conditioning
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
instructional and observational learning
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
mirror neurons
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
high emotion and memory
highly emotional memories are hard to forget
arousal enhances consolidation
amygdala and hippocampus in emotion
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
stress and memory
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
salience
how easy a stimulus pops into our attention
high salience is more memorable
how does emotion effect salience?
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
emotional stroop task
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
affective primacy hypothesis
proposes that emotional stimuli are processed relatively automatically
fewer demands on limited cognitive resources
- more bottom up processing
support for the affective primacy hypothesis
emotional faces stand out in a crowd - pay more attention to them
