Lecture 3 - Emotions in animals Flashcards
What was the Zajonc-Lazarus debate?
- Zajonc: “Affective and cognitive
processes are coordinated by separate
systems and can operate
independently.” - Lazarus: “An emotion cannot be
produced without a prior cognitive
appraisal.
= Are emotion and cognition separate or do they work together?
How would Zajonc argue for his side?
- Le Doux’ low road can explain all kinds of phenomena (affective blindsight, subliminally presented affective pictures etc)
- Especially, Mere exposure effect: repeated
exposure to an object leads to increased
positive affective reactions
=> Affective reactions do not require cognition
How does mere exposure effect work in research field?
Research 1
- Participants were shown photos of faces.
- The number of times each face was seen
was varied.
Research 2
- Step 1. Subliminally present nonsense words such as “zebulons” and “worbus” (visually masked).
- Step 2. Rate aesthetics of words:
- Same nonsense words (old/familiar)
- Other nonsense words (novel/unfamiliar)
Findings:
- The more often a face was presented, the
better they liked it
- “Familiar” nonsense words were liked
more than unfamiliar words
What did Lazarus claim about mere exposure effect?
- It can still be connected to cognition
- Evaluating valence of something, both bad and good = form of cognitive appraisal
What happened in Lazarus’ experiment
Showed students a filmed circumcision ritual and manipulated the accompanying soundtrack.
- Soundtrack that minimized the negative emotional impact of the film by denying the pain involved in the surgery and emphasizing the joyful aspects of the procedure (e.g. saying it was a positive experience, part of the culture).
- Others heard no soundtrack at all.
-> recorded their Skin conductance response
Finding:
- The way the video was appraised determined the e. response
Based on recent research - which one, Zajonc or Lazarus, would win?
Technically both:
- Early appraisal is not cognitive but an implicit
gut feeling (preference)
- Late/Slow appraisal is cognitive, rational
thinking that sometimes can be “quickened”
by arousal
What is apprasal according to Arnold?
= Fast, rough evaluation, a relational judgment
(good for me, bad for me)
- NOT conscious, intellectual judgement
-> results in tendency to approach positively appraised events and stay away from the negative
- Evolutionary adaptive: mechanism for behavioral flexibility -> allows the organism to adjust to the changing environment
How does James-Lange and Arnold theories differ (in their sequence)?
Do only humans appraise?
No - animals can also take into account the context of situation in their emotional reactions
- Respond to novelty, surprise, predictability, controllability, pleasantness
What would be an example of appraisal in zebrafish?
Response to novelty
- When put into a new tank -> decreased exploratory swimming, more freezing -> over the course of 7 days they habituate -> explore more, less freezing = being familiar
Demonstrate that animals are capable of more complex emotional processing/behaving - based on research/observations of Franc Waal
- Reuniting after a major fight between rhersus monkeysv -> matriarch in the middle while the opposing daughters on each side -> huddle closely making girning noises and lip-smacking, no eye contact made
- theory of mind: juvenile chimpanzee, poking with a stick at a snake in the grass that no one else knows about -> other apes become more cautious based on juvenile’s body language
Provide experiment showing that monkeys understand each others body language/ facial expressions.
Research: 2 monkeys were separated by a wall
- One monkey was taught that every time they hear a specific sound they will receive el. shock
- The second monkey was shown a screen recording face of the first monkey and a button that could stop the shocks
=> The second monkey could pick up on subtle signals of the first monkey about upcoming shock and prevent it
What’s the difference between antropomorphism and antropodenial?
Antropomorphism = attributing human characteristics to animals e.g. emotional responses
Antropodenial = denying that animals display, experience the same processes as we do e.g. claiming they have only basic emotions
Why may it be beneficial to study animal’s emotions?
- Helps us understand our own emotions
- Animals form a simpler model for emotional processing
- Can also inform us:
- Whether emotions are specific to humans
- How did emotions develop
What was the set up for the “drosophila” experiment?
- Flies were put into a plexiglass arena with transparent cover -> over them a paddle began to move
- researchers varied the speed of the paddle
- measured anxious behavior e.g. freezing, hopping
What were the findings of the “drosophila” experiment?
Passing of the shadow
=> resulted in hopping behavior
- the more passing (faster) - more h.b.
=> shadow pushed flies away from food
=> lasted for seconds to minutes
=> flies can summate the influence of multiple, closely spaced shadow stimuli to produce greater response
Explain the experiment with crayfish.
In the study, crayfish was put into a space in the shape of a cross - with 2 sides being in the light and 2 in shadows
- Normally crafish tend to explore both sides (although they have a preference for dark)
-> gave them electrical shock OR administered serotonin
=> Became stressed - exhibited less exploration of light areas
=> If calmed down with anxiolytic drug they moved again just like unstressed crayfish
What was the research with cats and their emotional reponses about?
Method:
Cats observed and heard both images and sounds of cats and humans displaying
positive and negative emotion (congruent or incongruent).
Findings:
=> Spontaneously looked more to facial expressions when congruent with the sound
=> Behavioral expressions of stress were higher for responses to “anger” and “ hiss”
Explain the dot probe task in Bonobo monkeys.
Method: Shown a fixation point in the middle down -> presented with 2 pictures with neutral or emotional valence -> shows a point and task is to direct one’s eyes towards it as quckly as possible
Findings:
=> Faster RT for emotional scence than neutral
=> The most for sex, grooming and yawning
What was the research about and findings associated with the following picture?
Research: asking adults to draw in the pupils of these faces
Findings:
=> People tended to draw larger pupils for the happy than angry face
=> BUT in children this effect disappears
Mechanism: we may learn the association between pupils and happiness over time
What’s the relationship between pupils and trust?
Trust game paradigm
- P. given some money and asked how much they would share with their partner
- On the way to the partner it would multiply by a preset number
- The partner may then return some of the money received back
=> How much do people invest if we show them the eyes of the partner with varied pupils
Findings:
=> People tended to trust the partner more if their pupils were dilated (even more if dynamic)
=> The relationship was stronger for partners within an ingroup
