Exam 4: Chapter 10-12 Flashcards
Define emotion and identify the three interrelated response types associated with it. - chapter 10
Emotions have three related facets:
Physiological responses (e.g., changes in heart rate, respiration, etc.)
Overt behaviors (e.g., smiling, baring teeth, etc.)
Conscious feelings (e.g., the actual feeling of the emotion)
What are the 6 basic (universal) emotions according to Ekman?
Paul Ekman (1984) has suggested that 6 basic emotions are “universal” and innate to humans (though modifiable by culture):
Happiness
Surprise
Fear
Sadness
Anger
Disgust
Describe the arousal (fight-or-flight response) system and the fear response.
Example: fear response
- Heart rate increases, pupils dilate, color drains from face
- Startle responses (e.g., jumping)
- Internal feeling of fear, anxiety, fright
- Activation of the sympathetic portion of the autonomic nervous system produces the “fight-or-flight” response common to many emotions:
- An important component is the release of stress hormones such as epinephrine (aka adrenaline) and glucocorticoides (especially cortisol).
Components of fight-or-flight response
Increase in:
- blood pressure and heart rate
- respiration
- blood glucose level
- pain suppression
- perception and awareness
- blood flow to large muscles in legs and arms
decreases in:
- digestion
- immune system function
- sexual arousal
- touch sensitivity
- peripheral vision
- growth
Describe the physiological basis of the autonomic nervous system response.
Physiological components of emotion are mediated primarily by the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic):
- Innervates involuntary muscles and internal organs
- Innervates glands, controlling hormonal system
Compare and contrast the James-Lange of emotion with the Cannon-Bard theory and Schacter-Singer two-factor theory.
James-Lange theory:
Emotional stimulus —> bodily respon se (arousal) —> conscious emotional feelings
Cannon-Bard theory:
Emotional stimulus —-> bodily response (arousal) & conscious emotional feelings
Schacter-Singer theory:
Emotional stimulus —-> bodily response (arousal) & cognitive appraisal —-> conscious emotional feelings
Be able to apply the 3 theories to real-world examples and be able to critique them.
James-Lange:
- pen study of putting it between your teeth to smile, makes you feel happy
Cannon-Bard theory:
- running and feeling fearful, your heart rate, doesn’t nessecarily mean that you are fearful, so those are independent
Schacter-Singer two-factor theory:
- ex. rollercoaster feeling emotions, feeling attracted to someone because heart racing different cognitive apprasial
- being angry or happy, shooting up epinephrine brings different emotions based on the context you are in
ames-Lange theory proposes that emotions start with physiological (autonomic) responses, which are then perceived by the CNS to create conscious emotional feelings.
- Modern variants are known as somatic theories of emotion (because physiological response leads).
- Consistent with this theory, merely adopting body postures for an emotion can actually lead to conscious experiences of that emotion
Cannon-Bard propose that physiological and conscious components of emotion are actually independent.
- Notes that physiological arousal does not automatically lead to emotional feelings (e.g., running elevates heart rate but doesn’t cause fear)
Schachter-Singer theory (AKA two-factor theory) synthesizes prior approaches, suggesting that arousal and context are interpreted by the CNS to generate conscious feelings.
- Sees emotional feelings as based on interpretation of the situation
- Falling sensation –> in a roller coaster, interpreted as safe, feeling of exhilaration
- Falling sensation –> crashing elevator, interpreted as unsafe, feeling of fear
Interpretation of physiological arousal (Schacter & Singer, 1962):
- Participants injected with epinephrine, causing increased heart rate and blood pressure
- Each participant placed with a colleague instructed to act in a different way: joyful or angry
- Participants reported feeling the same emotion as the colleague—they interpreted the physiological effects of the injection to be consistent with their expected outcome.
- May explain placebo and nocebo effects.
Evaluate the claim that nonhuman animals have emotions. What is neuroethology?
We can’t ask, but often observe behaviors that seem consistent with deep-felt emotions …
- A dog when its owner returns
- Elephant death
- Chimpanzee birth
- Dying killer whale
It is impossible to say if these behaviors are accompanied by conscious feelings. But… the other two components, biological responses and overt behaviors, are definitely observable.
Evolutionary considerations suggest yes, as we are unlikely to be different from our animal relatives in such a qualitative way.
- Darwin noted that fear behaviors are very similar across many mammalian species.
- Similarities include startle, piloerection (hair standing on end), possible loss of bladder control, release of cortisol, increased heart rate, pupil dilation, and more.
- Some of these behaviors seem conserved across much of the animal kingdom.
- Still, these similarities in behavior don’t necessarily indicate similarities in conscious experience …
Neurethology (the neural basis of behavior that is evolutionary and adaptive) also suggests similarities in emotions, even for positive emotions such as joy.
- Panskepp et al. have developed extensive evidence that rats laugh and feel joy. During play, rats turn one another over and nuzzle each other’s bellies (tickling?) causing the emission of ultrasonic squeals (laughing?).
- Tickle-induced vocalizations also occur in chimpanzees and gorillas (Davila-Ross, 2009)
- Dogs emit a characteristic laugh vocalization during play (Simonet, 2005)
Although fascinating, most lab research on emotion has focused on fear, as it is very easy to induce and measure.
Describe the learning processes involved in 1) conditioned emotional response (e.g., fear), 2) conditioned escape, 3) conditioned avoidance, and 4) learned helplessness.
SD -> R -> O
Conditioned fear is the most popular paradigm for studying emotion.
- A neutral stimulus (CS, usually a tone) is paired with a painful stimulus (US, usually a foot shock).
- The CS comes to evoke fear response (CR), including freezing and elevated blood pressure.
- Learned quickly, hard to extinguish, occurs over much of the animal kingdom.
Another popular paradigm is conditioned escape.
- Negative reinforcement paradigm:
- if do R, then take away ongoing noxious S
- e.g., press lever to terminate ongoing foot shock
- e.g., swim to platform to terminate being in cold water
- Also learned quickly and hard to extinguish
- conditioned escape is the initial response
Conditioned avoidance is a variation on conditioned escape.
- In this case, the response can be made before the onset of the noxious stimulation, avoiding its application altogether.
- Usually conducted in a shuttle box …
- continuous of response
Two-Factor Theory: No extinction occurs because light becomes a CS
- i.e., they learn to jump in order to escape the warning signal (fear)
Cognitive Expectancy Theory: Animal decides between competing possible behaviors based on expectancies. No extinction occurs because no expectations have been challenged.
Learned helplessness: Inescapable adverse events impair later avoidance learning
- Animal exposed to several unavoidable shocks
- Then given chance to perform avoidance learning
- Very low rate of avoidance—animal gives up and stops trying to escape
Describe the role of emotion in memory encoding and retrieval. What is meant by mood congruency?
We often have strong memories for episodes of intense emotions (fear and anger, but also happiness and surprise)
These tend to be memories that we rehearse frequently
- Reviewing them mentally
- Talking about them with others, retrieving them more and encoding is stronger then
Participants were told a story about a hospital visit:
- As part of a drill (non-emotional)
- As part of an accident (emotional)
- Both stories had the same beginning and end, and varied only in the middle segment.
- Strong encoding and persistence of emotionally charged memories is why advertisers like to use “arousing” images!
Mood congruency of memory means that it is easier to retrieve memories that match our current mood or emotional state.
- Another application of transfer-appropriate processing (Remember the scuba divers?)
Describe the concept of flashbulb memories and whether they are reliable.
- Very emotional events can lead to particularly vivid episodic memories: flashbulb memories
- Flashbulb memories (vivid, long-lasting, not accurate) suggest that emotion can greatly increase memory encoding.
- Flashbulb memories are not perfectly accurate, as memory-researcher Ulrich Neisser realized about one of his own:
- More detailed studies show that memories for highly emotional events (such as 9/11) do decay over time, and are prone to misattribution errors (such as other episodic memories)
- Still, evidence does suggest that emotion can boost memory encoding …
Identify the major emotion centers in the brain.
Amygdala, hippocampus, and Frontal Lobes
Know the involvement of the amygdala in emotion including the neural circuitry and pathways underlying emotional responses.
Unfortunately, emotions have a complex relationship with the brain:
- A single emotion activates many different brain regions.
- The same brain region can be activated by the more than one emotion.
- Despite this complexity, the amygdala stands out as a structure involved in many types of emotional processing …
A collection of subcortical nuclei in the anterior temporal lobe
- Name means “the almond” in Greek
- Collection of many different nuclei, only some of which are shown here (many have little/no role in emotional processing)
The basolateral amygdala may modulate memory to increase storage of emotional memories.
- Imaging studies show that emotional events activate the amygdala.
- Degree of amygdala activation predicts memory boost for emotional material.
- Amygdala activation also correlates with stronger feelings of “knowing” emotional material, both at encoding and recall.
- Amygdala activation helps promote a stress response and stress hormones (which help memory, initially, but harm it long-term).
(practice doing the figure on slide 37 to show how the amygdala is involved)
Describe the role that stress hormones play in memory.
help memory, initially, but harm it long-term
What is meant by the “concept of a consolidation period”.
the time it takes for the memory to be stored in long-term memory
- memories malable during the consolidation period, so anything could change that memory during that period
- emotional memories might be more suspectible for change, due to the memory having stress responses
Describe how the hippocampus and frontal lobes contribute to emotion.
- In fear conditioning, animals learn not only the pairing between CS and US (Tone and Shock) but also the context of the relationship. After training, simple re-exposure to the context (training chamber) also evokes fear responses.
- Although the hippocampal lesions have no effect on fear conditioning of the CS-US relationship, it abolishes contextual learning: training apparatus no longer provokes fear responses.
The frontal cortex also plays important roles in emotional processing:
- Mood regulation: frontal lobe damage can cause changes in emotional regulation, with some patients exhibiting flattened mood and others experiencing heightened and inappropriate emotionality.
- Social cues related to mood:
- Frontal lobe damage can impair the ability to recognize facial expressions of mood.
- fMRI studies show enhanced activation of the medial PFC while viewing emotional faces.
- Fear learning: Frontal lobe damage can impair extinction of fear responses, leading to perseveration of the response.
Define phobias, describe how they might arise, and possible ways of treating them.
Phobia—overwhelming, irrational fear of an object, place, or situation.
e.g., ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), acrophobia (fear of heights)
- Best explained as arising through classical conditioning procedure.
On the basis that some phobias may arise through classical conditioning, the therapy of systematic desensitization uses the concept of extinction to reduce the ability of the phobic stimulus to elicit a fear response.
Define posttraumatic stress disorder, describe its neural basis. What are the possible courses of treatment?
- In PTSD, a natural fear reaction does not subside with time, possibly reflecting the failure of extinction.
- Some research suggests that certain individuals have preexisting characteristics, such as reduced Hpc volume or heightened amygdala response to emotional stimuli, that could increase the risk for PTSD following exposure to a traumatic event.
- exposure to cues that triggers anxiety, without the stimulus, encourage extinction; exposure therapy, virtual reality techniques to explore their areas with the most fear response
Define and describe the processes of social (observational) learning. - chapter 11
Social (or observational) learning is learning in which the learner actively monitors events involving other individuals and then chooses later actions based on their observations.
- Informally, often called copying or imitating
What makes it difficult to study?
Difficult to study, especially in non-humans:
- Usually, no reward/punishment specifically given during training.
- Depends on the learner’s attention to and perception of the situation they observe.
- Up to the learner to decide when/how actually perform behaviors that have been observed.
- Hard to predict and measure what is learned.
Describe the roles of modeling in observational learning.
Powerful form of learning in humans:
- Learn from watching others, watching video, reading books, etc.
The roles modeling has in observational learning are the ideal behavior or an understanding of behavior
- The experimental study of social learning started with a set of seminal experiments by Albert Bandura and colleagues. The intent of these experiments was to see if aggressive behavior in adults would be copied by children.
How has the emphasis changed in early vs. modern social learning theory?
Early social learning theory adapted Behaviorist principles:
- Focused on the incentives for a behavior: punishments and rewards
- Saw social learning as a form of vicarious operant conditioning, enabling learners to observe about the consequences of a behavior without having to try it first hand:
- Jill observes Bill crying, and sees his mom pick him up to sooth him.
- Jill now knows that crying is reinforced and is more likely to try it.
Modern approaches take a more cognitive approach, seeing social learning as self-motivated (not needing explicit punishment/reward) and guided by cognitive appraisals.
