L9: Emotion and Cognition

Question 1

What is meant by ‘affective’

Answer 1

emotions and preferences

Question 2

What is meant by appraisals?

Answer 2

If we think or reason about emotions

Question 3

*Explain Ekman’s study of basic emotions

Answer 3

6 basic expressions of emotion:
- anger
- disgust
- fear
- happiness
- sadness
- surprise
Each basic emotion is characterized by a unique subset of facial muscle movements

Question 4

What are the features of the 6 basic emotions?

Answer 4

1. universal
2. innate
3. unique subset of facial muscle movements

Question 5

Where is anger in the brain?

Answer 5

Involved in many regions depending on different aspects

Question 6

Where is disgust in the brain?

Answer 6

Insular cortex, basal ganglia

Question 7

Where is fear located in the brain?

Answer 7

Amygdala

Question 8

Where is sadness located in the brain?

Answer 8

Reduced cortical activation and connectivity

Question 9

What happens to a patient with amygdala damage?

Answer 9

They struggle to perceive / recognise fear in others.

Question 10

What are the basal ganglia and insular cortex?

Answer 10

They are involved in experiencing and recognizing disgust

Question 11

*What is the circumplex model of human emotion?

Answer 11

Emotions are defined on a spectrum of arousal and valence (subjective experience of emotional quality: good vs bad) (Barrett & Russell, 1999; Russell, 1980).

Question 12

What is the geneva emotion wheel?

Answer 12

Similar to circumplex model but spectrum is along pleasantness and control

Question 13

What is meant by “approach” and “withdrawal” emotions?

Answer 13

Approach emotions evoke the desire to approach the stimulus object or situation.
Withdrawal emotions evoke the desire to withdraw from objects or situations linked to these emotions.

Question 14

What are the 2 main strategies to manipulate emotions for scientific study?

Answer 14

Evocative stimuli
Mood induction

Question 15

What is evocative stimuli?

Answer 15

Stimuli that elicit emotional responses

Question 16

What is mood induction?

Answer 16

mood is a more stable and diffuse affective state than emotion (longer lasting and not necessarily linked to a specific event or object).

Question 17

What is direct assessment?

Answer 17

A way of measuring emotions that rely on introspection and is affected by cultural conventions.
- self-report measures

Question 18

What is an indirect assessment to measure emotions?

Answer 18

Behaviour (decisions)
Pupil dilation, skin conductance, heart rate, respiratory rate….

Question 19

Why/how can we measure emotions with electrodes on the body?

Answer 19

Our peripheral nervous system is not only regulating bodily functions
It is also affected by emotional states
E.g. we can measure arousal (a component of emotional states) with electrophysiological measures.

Question 20

How can a stimulus gain or lose value?

Answer 20

Classical conditioning - repeated co-occurrence of stimuli will lead to association.

Question 21

What are the two types of emotional conditioning?

Answer 21

Autonomic conditioning: can be expressed through bodily responses, such as arousal response
Evaluative conditioning: can be expressed through a preference or attitude

Question 22

What is double dissocitation?

Answer 22

Amygdala is involved in anticipation of negative stimuli (conditioned autonomic responses)

Question 23

How are the amygdala and hippocampus connected (aversive conditioning)?

Answer 23

Amygdala mediates learning that is associated with fear or stimulus valence (extremes of good or bad).
Hippocampus holds memory of what association that is.

Question 24

What is evaluative conditioning?

Answer 24

Learned subjective preferences or attitudes
Acquired through classical conditioning.
The goal of many forms of advertising.

Question 25

What is reversing conditioning?

Answer 25

Learned associations can be unlearned again.
If the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the negative experience.

Question 26

Explain instructional and observational learning

Answer 26

If instructions or observations (media) are threatening enough, we also learn emotional responses to things we are unlikely to experience (e.g., germs, sharks, terrorists).
This works because we evolved complex communication (language) which allows us to experience things ‘vicariously’ (embodiment, simulation)
Learning via instruction and via conditioning activate the same brain networks

Question 27

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 27

Learning vicariously
They fire when we do a task, or observe another doing the same task.
We also mirror emotions and pain of others.

Question 28

How does emotion affect memory?

Answer 28

Highly emotional memories are more robust to forgetting
Amygdala mediates emotional memories by interacting with the hippocampus
Arousal enhances consolidation » better memory of high arousal situations

Question 29

How does emotion capture attention?

Answer 29

Emotion increases salience of stimuli and hence perceptual processing of and attention towards them.
As a result, other stimuli presented at the same time get processed less and are less attended to.
This can facilitate (if emotion stimulus is target) or decrease (if the emotional stimulus is not the target) performance in tasks,

Question 30

What is the effective primacy hypothesis?

Answer 30

The affective primacy hypothesis proposes that emotional stimuli are processed relatively automatically, making fewer demands on limited cognitive resources than do other types of stimuli (Wundt, 1907).
Supported by findings of pop out effects for:
- emotional faces in crowds,
- enhanced stimulus detection in neglect patients