Emotions Flashcards
Give 4 formal definitions of emotion
- 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.”
- Ortony et al., 1988 - “Emotion may be understood as the outcome of an evaluation of the extent to which ones goals are being met.”
- Rolls (2005) - Emotions are states elicited by rewards and punishers
- Paul et al., 2005 - Emotions are processes concerned with achieving goals (seeking valuable resources/rewards or avoiding harm/punishment)
What was the initial intuitive causal chain of emotion? Who proposed it to be wrong?
"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
What is the James-Lange theory?
Emotions are felt due to sensing peripheral changes in our own body Antonio Demasio (Modern Theorist) Agrees with this view.
Who has challenged the James-lange theory?
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
What did Schachter and Singer propose? When?
1962 - cognitive interpretation of peripheral body changes required to determine which emotion is experienced
What experiment did Schachter and Singer carry out?
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)
What is the appraisal theory of emotion?
Stimulus -> Central appraisal of stimulus (may NOT be conscious) -> Emotion
What is interOception?
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
What are the 4 aspects of the componential view of emotion?
Subjective, Behavioural, Physiological, Cognitive
Define a reward
Something an animal will work for or learn an operant response to obtain.
Define a punisher
Something an animal will work to escape or avoid
Define primary reinforcers
Unlearned reinforcers or punishers eg. predators, nice tastes, pain. Specified by genetics.
Define secondary reinforcers
Learnt in association with a primary reinforcer - eg. sound/light
Define motivation according to Rolls 2005
A sate one is in when working to gain a specific reward or avoid a specific punisher
How do reinforcers interact to create emotions? (SIMPLIFIED CROSS DIAGRAM)
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
In primates, where are the emotion centres?
Orbitofrontal cortex and Amygdala allow learning of associations between primary and secondary reinforcers, tagged with reward information
Where do outputs from the emotion centres of the brain project to?
Areas that control autonomic function eg. hypothalamus
Areas that control learning and behavioural responses eg. cingulate cortex and basal ganglia
Where are primary reinforcers coded? Do they have reward information?
Sensory processing areas like thalamus, primary taste cortex - no emotion associated
Where are secondary reinforcers coded for?
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
What are the functions of emotions?
- 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
How do emotions and moods differ?
Emotions - short term states elicited by stimuli
Moods - long term emotional or affective states that persist in the absence of any stimuli
How do emotions and sensations differ?
Sensations - feed directly from sensory apparatus to the CNS
Emotions - no sensory apparatus, involve interpretation of stimuli
How do primary and secondary reinforcer areas of the brain differ in their firing?
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
What are the two dimensions of emotion?
Arousal and Valence High Arousal High Valence = Excitement High Arousal Low Valence = Fear Low Arousal Low Valence = Sadness Low Arousal High Valence = Contentment
How are subjective emotions assessed in humans?
Gold- Standard self report
Who believes that conscious experience of emotions coevolved with linguistic capabilities?
Rolls, Macphail
Who believes that most mammals will have a subjective experience of emotion?
Panksepp, Baars
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
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
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
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
What is Joseph LeDoux’s view on animal emotion?
Brain states and bodily responses are fundamental facets of emotion and occur in other species
What does Ekman’s basic emotion system consist of?
All cultures shows these
- Happy
- Sad
- Fear
- Anger
- Suprise
- Disgust
What does Panksep’s basic emotional system consist of?
Play Lust Care Fear Rage Panic Seeking
Which emotion has been most widely studied?
Fear
Define fear according to Boissy
Emotional state induced by the perception of actual danger
What is the adaptive value of fear?
Motivation of appropriate defensive/avoidance reactions in a FLEXIBLE manner
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
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
What is the audience effect?
When behaviour only occurs in the presence of conspecifics
What signs of fear may be noted in behavioural tests?
Staying in enclosed areas
Tonic immobility
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
What can the starlet test indicate?
Emotional valence - reward state attenuates startle, fear state potentiates it
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.
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
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
When may physiological fear responses also be seen?
Sexual arousal/pleasure
Give 4 measures associated with fear likely to give the best assessment
Context
Spontaneous behaviour
Behavioural tests
Physiological measures
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
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
When does FRUSTRATION occur?
When behaviour is thwarted.
When does ANGER occur?
When attacked/challenged/thwarted by another individual
What spontaneous behaviour is displayed during frustration?
Redirected behaviour/stereotypy eg. feeding Aggression Sped up behaviour Vocalisation Eye white display
Give an example of a study looking at eye white display
Sandem et al 2002, 2006
What behavioural tests can identify anger?
Thwarting or social confrontation leading to spontaneous anger behaviours
What physiological measures can identify anger?
SAM and HPA axis
Elevated testosterone
Elevated central vasopressin
Diminshed central serotinergic activity
What does diazepam do?
Decrease arousal (anxiolytic)
What spontaneous behaviours identify happiness or positive emotion?
Approach, play, exploration, affiliative behaviour, vocalisation (eg. panksepps tickling rats)
What experiment has shown vocalisation as a sign of positive emotion?
Panksepp and Burgdorf 2000 - tickling rats
Which behavioural tests can be used to identify happiness?
preference tests
place preference
attenuated startle
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
When does sadness/grief occur?
Omission, loss or threat of a rewarding stimulus
What spontaneous behaviour may be shown for sadness/grief?
Attention to dead or dying conspecifics
Give a study looking at grief/sadness in animals.
Douglas-Hamilton et al 2006 - elephants
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
What did Russell propose in 2003?
Dimensional model of subjective emotion - arousal on y axis, valence on x.
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
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
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.
Give an example of a study on dog biases?
Mendl et al 2010, dogs with separation anxiety judge ambiguous locations negatively
Give an example of bias testing in birds
Bateson et al 2007
Enriched v unenriched starlings judging ambiguous lid colours
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
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?
What are the four components of emotion?
Physiological, behavioural, cognitive, subjective
