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Emotions Flashcards

1
Q

Give 4 formal definitions of emotion

A
  1. Oatley and Jenkins 1996 - “An emotion is usually caused by a person consciously or unconsciously evaluating an event as relevant to a concern (goal) that is important; the emotion is felt as positive when the concern is advanced and negative when the concern is impeded.”
  2. Ortony et al., 1988 - “Emotion may be understood as the outcome of an evaluation of the extent to which ones goals are being met.”
  3. Rolls (2005) - Emotions are states elicited by rewards and punishers
  4. Paul et al., 2005 - Emotions are processes concerned with achieving goals (seeking valuable resources/rewards or avoiding harm/punishment)
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2
Q

What was the initial intuitive causal chain of emotion? Who proposed it to be wrong?

A 
"See Bear" -> "Feel Fear" -> "Run"
William James (1900s) and Carl Lange proposed "See Bear" -> Pounding heart, sweaty palms, run away -> "Feel fear" 
ie. That we feel emotions based on peripheral changes in the body
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3
Q

What is the James-Lange theory?

A 
Emotions are felt due to sensing peripheral changes in our own body 
Antonio Demasio (Modern Theorist) Agrees with this view.
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4
Q

Who has challenged the James-lange theory?

A

Walter Cannon (1900s)

  • major body changes appear similar for a range of reported emotions
  • disruption of feedback from the periphery did not abolish emotional responses
  • subjective emotions appear to happen faster than visceral changes suggested to cause them.
  • humans injected with adrenaline do not report feeling a particular emotion
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5
Q

What did Schachter and Singer propose? When?

A

1962 - cognitive interpretation of peripheral body changes required to determine which emotion is experienced

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6
Q

What experiment did Schachter and Singer carry out?

A

Subjects injected with adrenaline, but half told it was just a vitamin. Both exposed to happy/playful confederate, half exposed to angry/rude confederate. Asked emotions afterwards - those who thought the drug was a vitamin attributed the feelings to emotion and said they felt happy/angry, those who knew the effects were due to the drug said they felt minimal emotion (cognitive dampening down of emotion)

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7
Q

What is the appraisal theory of emotion?

A

Stimulus -> Central appraisal of stimulus (may NOT be conscious) -> Emotion

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8
Q

What is interOception?

A

Detection of ones own physiological state eg. heart beat. People who are good at detecting their own heartbeats are more emotionally expressive and have more intense emotions

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9
Q

What are the 4 aspects of the componential view of emotion?

A

Subjective, Behavioural, Physiological, Cognitive

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10
Q

Define a reward

A

Something an animal will work for or learn an operant response to obtain.

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11
Q

Define a punisher

A

Something an animal will work to escape or avoid

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12
Q

Define primary reinforcers

A

Unlearned reinforcers or punishers eg. predators, nice tastes, pain. Specified by genetics.

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13
Q

Define secondary reinforcers

A

Learnt in association with a primary reinforcer - eg. sound/light

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14
Q

Define motivation according to Rolls 2005

A

A sate one is in when working to gain a specific reward or avoid a specific punisher

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15
Q

How do reinforcers interact to create emotions? (SIMPLIFIED CROSS DIAGRAM)

A

Presentation of a reward - Pleasure.. ecstasy
Omission or termination of a reward - Sadness.. Rage
Presentation of a punisher - fear.. terror
Omission or termination of a punisher - relief

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16
Q

In primates, where are the emotion centres?

A

Orbitofrontal cortex and Amygdala allow learning of associations between primary and secondary reinforcers, tagged with reward information

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17
Q

Where do outputs from the emotion centres of the brain project to?

A

Areas that control autonomic function eg. hypothalamus

Areas that control learning and behavioural responses eg. cingulate cortex and basal ganglia

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18
Q

Where are primary reinforcers coded? Do they have reward information?

A

Sensory processing areas like thalamus, primary taste cortex - no emotion associated

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19
Q

Where are secondary reinforcers coded for?

A

eg. seeing a dominant conspecific. Coded to allow recognition of WHAT they are but without any reward information at sensory processing structures eg. inferior temporal visual cortex

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20
Q

What are the functions of emotions?

A
  • Enable a system in which survival goals (rewards and punishers) are coded by genes, and behaviour is guided by emotional states
  • Prepare the body for action by changes in physiological state
  • motivate specific action (eg. running away )
  • may influence cognitive function
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21
Q

How do emotions and moods differ?

A

Emotions - short term states elicited by stimuli

Moods - long term emotional or affective states that persist in the absence of any stimuli

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22
Q

How do emotions and sensations differ?

A

Sensations - feed directly from sensory apparatus to the CNS

Emotions - no sensory apparatus, involve interpretation of stimuli

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23
Q

How do primary and secondary reinforcer areas of the brain differ in their firing?

A

Primary areas will keep firing in the presence of a stimulus - you are eating cake, cake tastes like x
Secondary areas firing will drop off as value added by stimulus decreases - cake doesn’t taste good anymore

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24
Q

What are the two dimensions of emotion?

A 
Arousal and Valence 
High Arousal High Valence = Excitement 
High Arousal Low Valence = Fear
Low Arousal Low Valence = Sadness
Low Arousal High Valence = Contentment
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25
How are subjective emotions assessed in humans?
Gold- Standard self report
26
Who believes that conscious experience of emotions coevolved with linguistic capabilities?
Rolls, Macphail
27
Who believes that most mammals will have a subjective experience of emotion?
Panksepp, Baars
28
What are the four components of emotion and which is the hardest to study?
Physiological, behavioural, cognitive, subjective | Subjective most difficult as requires self report
29
According to the reinforcer definition of emotion, do flys experience emotion?
Yes - can be trained to work to access a reward, therefore it does feel emotion when trying to obtain the reward and when denied it
30
What is Edmund Rolls view on animal emotion?
Emotional states will be elicited if animals can work (learn arbitrary operant responses to obtain rewards/avoid punishers) The neural apparatus underpinning emotional processes in primates is present in majority of other mammalian species at least
31
What is Jaak Panksepp's view on animal emotion?
primitive emotional circuitry eg. fear, rage ,panic exist in many species - But that does not necessarily mean they have a subjective component
32
What is Joseph LeDoux's view on animal emotion?
Brain states and bodily responses are fundamental facets of emotion and occur in other species
33
What does Ekman's basic emotion system consist of?
All cultures shows these - Happy - Sad - Fear - Anger - Suprise - Disgust
34
What does Panksep's basic emotional system consist of?
``` Play Lust Care Fear Rage Panic Seeking ```
35
Which emotion has been most widely studied?
Fear
36
Define fear according to Boissy
Emotional state induced by the perception of actual danger
37
What is the adaptive value of fear?
Motivation of appropriate defensive/avoidance reactions in a FLEXIBLE manner
38
What is the evidence that a fear emotion exists? What is the flaw in this reasoning?
Animals placed in contexts likely to induce a fear state, outputs recorded eg. spontaneous behaviour, responses to tests, physiological measures The definition of a fear inducing stimulus is highly anthropomorphic
39
Give examples of spontaneous behavioural indicators of fear. How may these differ?
Species and situation specific - Freezing - Avoidance/hiding/escape eg. birds may mob a predator through fear - Defensive posture - Vocalisation eg. may only occur in presence of conspecifics (Audience effect) - Defeacation
40
What is the audience effect?
When behaviour only occurs in the presence of conspecifics
41
What signs of fear may be noted in behavioural tests?
Staying in enclosed areas | Tonic immobility
42
What is the neural route of the startle test?
Threat -> Thalamus -> Sensory Cortex/straight to amygdala -> Amygdala -> Nucleus Reticularis/Pontis Caudalis -> Potentiated startle response via spinal motor neurones
43
What can the starlet test indicate?
Emotional valence - reward state attenuates startle, fear state potentiates it
44
How can behavioural indicators of fear be validated?
Against other tests of fear, use of anxiolytic drugs or other drugs known to elicit a particular emotional state in humans.
45
What are the problems associated with behavioural tests of fear?
Behaviour difficult to interpret Different tests disagree on their assessment of fearfulness Different species respond differently
46
Give 3 physiological indicators of fear
Fear (OR AROUSAL!) -> Stress -> Activation of SAM (Sympathetic-adrenomedullary, ^BP, sweating, ^HR, vHR variability, ^ circulating catecholamines) HPA (Hypothalamaic-Pituitary-Adrenal, elevated circulating ACTH and Cortisol ^PRL, ^b endorphin, ^central vasopressin and CRF
47
When may physiological fear responses also be seen?
Sexual arousal/pleasure
48
Give 4 measures associated with fear likely to give the best assessment
Context Spontaneous behaviour Behavioural tests Physiological measures
49
Define anxiety according to Boissy 1995. | How does it differ to fear?
An emotional state induced by the perception of POTENTIAL danger. - similar adaptive value to fear (defines/avoidance) but is a longer lasting state of non-specific preparedness - outputs similar to fear, may be more vigilance rather than active escape - inputs differ - actual v potential danger
50
What are the physiological measurements in relation to DISGUST? Give an example of a study.
Central opioid activity | Spontaneous behaviour - avoidance, bill wiping, facial expression looked at by Berridge and Robinson 2003
51
When does FRUSTRATION occur?
When behaviour is thwarted.
52
When does ANGER occur?
When attacked/challenged/thwarted by another individual
53
What spontaneous behaviour is displayed during frustration?
``` Redirected behaviour/stereotypy eg. feeding Aggression Sped up behaviour Vocalisation Eye white display ```
54
Give an example of a study looking at eye white display
Sandem et al 2002, 2006
55
What behavioural tests can identify anger?
Thwarting or social confrontation leading to spontaneous anger behaviours
56
What physiological measures can identify anger?
SAM and HPA axis Elevated testosterone Elevated central vasopressin Diminshed central serotinergic activity
57
What does diazepam do?
Decrease arousal (anxiolytic)
58
What spontaneous behaviours identify happiness or positive emotion?
Approach, play, exploration, affiliative behaviour, vocalisation (eg. panksepps tickling rats)
59
What experiment has shown vocalisation as a sign of positive emotion?
Panksepp and Burgdorf 2000 - tickling rats
60
Which behavioural tests can be used to identify happiness?
preference tests place preference attenuated startle
61
Which physiological parameters may be measured to identify happiness or positive emotions?
HPA activation - excitement or sexual pleasure Central opioid - liking something Dopamine - wanting something Central oxytocin - social affiliation/pair-bonding
62
When does sadness/grief occur?
Omission, loss or threat of a rewarding stimulus
63
What spontaneous behaviour may be shown for sadness/grief?
Attention to dead or dying conspecifics
64
Give a study looking at grief/sadness in animals.
Douglas-Hamilton et al 2006 - elephants
65
What is the discrete emotions approach to animal emotion?
Specific emotional states Tests involve exposing animals to situations researches presume to induce specific discrete emotions Mostly negative states studied Lacks an over arching framework or structure of emotions to integrate massive range of emotions and predict other states
66
What did Russell propose in 2003?
Dimensional model of subjective emotion - arousal on y axis, valence on x.
67
Why would not responding to a potential threat be adaptive?
Avoid false alarm behaviour if living in a low threat environment where stimuli are not likely to actually predict threats
68
Give an example of bias testing
Harding, Paul and Mendl 2004/2005 Rats trained OPERANTLY on a positive stimulus and negative stimulus.. Shown an ambiguous stimulus, see which response they perform. Happy rats should judge ambiguous stimulus as positive stimulus Rats housed in predictable/unpredictable housing. Rats housed in unpredictable conditions more likely to treat probe as negative - pessimistic
69
Give an example of a spatial test of bias
Burman et al 2008 - placed pots with food on right or empty on left When placed in middle did they expect to see food? Judged as latency to approach.
70
Give an example of a study on dog biases?
Mendl et al 2010, dogs with separation anxiety judge ambiguous locations negatively
71
Give an example of bias testing in birds
Bateson et al 2007 | Enriched v unenriched starlings judging ambiguous lid colours
72
How can cross species measures of animal affect be carried out?
Incorporating discrete and dimensional approaches to emotion - predicts how changes in decision making (cognitive bias) reflect emotional valence Cognitive bias can detect valence of emotion and possible arousal? (Not yet tested) May reveal phenotypes vulnerable to emotional disorder
73
What must be considered when studying cognitive bias as the basis of emotion in animals?
Do you have to have conscious reflection of emotional state to show cognitive bias?
74
What are the four components of emotion?
Physiological, behavioural, cognitive, subjective

BVetMed - Animal Behaviour (35 decks)

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