emotion and motivation Flashcards
Reward
In animal learning,
anything that an animal will
work to obtain.
Punishment
In animal
learning, anything an animal
will work to avoid.
Reinforcement
Typically
some form of reward
(positive reinforcement) or
punishment (negative
reinforcement) that affects
the likelihood of a response
being repeated.
Reinforcer
A stimulus that elicits a change in behavior.
Instrumental learning
A type of learning where an animal learns to perform an action to obtain reinforcement.
Likert scales
A simple measure of subjective
experience. Participants must make a mark on a line that corresponds to how they feel.
Kluver-Bucy syndrome
A collection of emotional impairments resulting from amygdala damage in animals
Beta blocker
A drug that blocks the effects of
adrenaline and noradrenaline.
Traditionally emotion and motivation have been difficult to study in a laboratory setting because
they are such subjective concepts that are extremely difficult to quantify
From the classic case of Phineas Gage through to the modern series of studies by Damasio, Bechara, and colleagues, it is clear that
two critical brain regions are the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Patients with damage to these regions typically have
relatively spared cognitive function but pronounced impairments in emotion, motivation, and social function
Although these neuropsychological cases suggest a degree of independence between cognition and emotion, it is clear that the
full range of emotional experience depends on interactions between cognition and emotion, as well as somatic responses
Emotion is associated with
bodily responses as well as feelings, and both of these can color how we perceive, interpret, and remember the world around us
Ventral frontal regions and the amygdala also form part of the
motivation circuitry, as well as striatal structures and other prefrontal areas
Our social interactions are dependent
on emotional and motivational factors
