Task 7- M&M Presentation (Computationally Modeling Human Emotion (Marsella & Gratch))

Question 1

What did Simon say about emotions?

Answer 1

• critical function of intelligent behaviour

- interrupting mechanism -> switch between competing modes

Question 2

What is the role of emotions?

Answer 2

-crucial in decision making

Question 3

What does the discrete theory of emotion say?

Answer 3

there is a limited number of core,distinct emotions that are biologically determined, innate natural kinds

Question 4

What does the dimensional theories of emotion say?

Answer 4

emotions and other affective phenomena should be conceptualized as continuous, not dimensional e.g. anger doesn’t have one distinct brain region/ circuit

Question 5

What does the appraisal theory of emotions say?

Answer 5

o Emotions arise from a process of comparing individual needs to external demands; emotions cannot be explained by solely focusing on environment or only on individual
o Emotions reflect the “person-environment relationship” -> is characterized or appraised in terms of certain criteria (appraisal variables)
o  Is this event desirable with respect to one’s goals or concerns?; Who caused it?; Was it expected?; and What power do I have over its unfolding?  results of these appraisal checks are in turn mapped to emotion

Question 6

What was the critic on the appraisal theory?

Answer 6

emotion is inherently reactive and appraisals are best viewed as a consequent, certainly not a precursor, of emotional reactions

Question 7

How is the appraisal process?

Answer 7

appraisal process that assesses this representation is fast, parallel, and automatic

Question 8

What does the appraisal theory lead to?

Answer 8

coping strategy -> influence on environment and internal beliefs

Question 9

What is the appraisal theory in line with?

Answer 9

-in line w/ Simon’s definition/ purpose of emotions –> important for decision making

Question 10

What does the EMA Model say about assigning values?

Answer 10

-assigns values for each relevant factor and Copes based on that

Question 11

What is the person-environment relation?

Answer 11

• -> model has a specific relation that serves as input and output of the model
• environment: beliefs about world
• personal: desires and intentions

Question 12

What is the causal Interpretation?

Answer 12

snapshot of the agent’s current knowledge concerning the agent-environment relationship. This knowledge changes, moment to moment, in response to observation or inference

Question 13

Appraisal Derivation process

Answer 13

• appraisal: updated affective summary

- fast, parallel and automatic process

Question 14

Which are the different appraisal values in the frame?

Answer 14

• Perspective: viewpoint from which the proposition is judged (your own or others)
• Relevance: releveant if it has non-zero utility for some agent
• Desirability: value of proposition to agent
• Likelihood: likelihood of propositions
• Expectedness: extent to which a state could have been predicted by causal interpretation
• Causal attribution: who deserves credit/blame?
• Controllability: Can the outcome be altered by an agent’s actions?
• Changeability: Can the outcome be altered by another agent?

Question 15

What is mood?

Answer 15

adaptive, not intentional

-> biased average of appraised events over time

Question 16

What happens in emotion derivation?

Answer 16

like decision making but biased

Question 17

Can the same context lead to different appraisals?

Answer 17

Yes, same context can lead to different appraisals/ emotions

Question 18

Affect consequence: focus and coping

Answer 18

-final step: includes computational model of coping in an appraised process

Question 19

Function of coping

Answer 19

• coping determines our response/ action with purpose being to alter person- environment relationship
• either to maintain desirable events/outcome or changing undesirable events

Question 20

Coping strategies

Answer 20

1. Attention related coping
2. Belief related coping
3. Desire related coping
4. Intention related coping

Question 21

Attention related coping

Answer 21

alter attention to alter emotional state (think about smth positive); seeking nice or suppress bad information

Question 22

Belief related coping

Answer 22

alter belief to alter emotional state e.g. blame teacher for not passing

Question 23

Desire related coping

Answer 23

• distancing

- alter priority to alter emotional state e.g. if I fail exam, i might as well party

Question 24

Intention related coping

Answer 24

alter intention to alter emotional state e.g. I failed the exam so I will study more next time

Question 25

What do I do with the different coping strategies?

Answer 25

• process: parallel looking at coping

- try out sequentially and then decide for own

Question 26

High control over situation

Answer 26

prefer problem-directed coping e.g. plan and action

Question 27

Low control over situatuon

Answer 27

emotion focused wishful thinking and distancing