Weeks 11 and 12 Flashcards
Basic Category emotions
Happiness, anger, sadness, fear surprise and disgust
Why are emotions helpful
- activate survival mechanisms
- motivates adaptive behaviours
- optimise use of cognitive resources
- Communicate needs & intentions
Blended Category Emotions
Jealousy, awe, delight, contempt, pity
Social Emotions
embarassment, shame, empathy, love
Intellectual Emotions
curisoity, boredom, insight, confusion
Homeostatic Emotions
hunger, pain, thirst, itch, confusion
Dimensional Models of Classifying Emotions
Valence
Arousal
Motivation
Valence
Posiitve/Negative; Pleasant/Unpleaseant
Arousal
High, Low
Motivaiton
Approach/Withdraw
Three kinds of emotion theories
Basic Emotion Theories
Psycholgocial Constructionist Theories
Appraisal Theories
Darwins Basic Emotion Theory
- Many animals have these basic emotions and they are fundamental for survival
- Babies have these basic emotions from very early on in life
What makes an emotion basic (Part of Darwins Theory)
- Distinctive universal signs
- Distinctive physiology
- Distinctive universal trigger
- Presence in other primates
- Presence in infants
- Automatic apprasiel
- Distinctive subject experience
James Lange Theory Psychological Constructionist Thoery
The state of our body is the reason why we feel an emotion
e.g bear example - when you see a bear your heart starts punding and thats the reason you feel fear therefore it is because of our physical response that determines what emotion we are subject too
Schacter & Singer:
Attribution of Arousal
The situation triggers physiological response
Context determines how we interpret the
physiological response
Emotion = physiology + interpretation
Cannon Bard Theory of Emotion
- Disagreed with James’ theory
The body and the emotion are two independent things (body does not Cause emotion)
Example: We see the bear, and that activates the thalamus. This than branches off into two different directions, autonomic arousal and conscious emotion. (these occur simultaneously)
Magda Arnold Theory of Emotion
You have the situation —>
Then Appraisal (determining whether it is good or bad) —–>
Then Emotion (like vs dislike) —->
Then Action (approach vs withdrawal)
Apprasial Theories
our emotional response is largely influenced by how we interpret the event
- is it good or bad
- is it controllable
- is it novel or familiar
the outcomes of these questions give rise to emotional response
Two ways that an emotion can go from in the world to something that is inside if your brain
The thinking high road
The speedy low road
The Thinking High Road
- Goes into the brain through the senses
- Goes into the thalamus then into the prefrontal cortex
- it then assigns some kind of value to this information
- triggers memory to inform what kind of emotional response to have
- sends a signal to the amygdala which sends the signal down both nervous systems
The Speedy Low Road
- Information goes from sensory organs to thalamus
- From the thalamus straight to the amygdala
The amygdala knows some things about your environment but is not as smart (for primordial fears, life/death)
Amygdala
One of the most connected parts of the brian, regulation of arousal by sending info to autonomic nervous system
Autonomic Nervous system
has two parts
is apart of the peripheral nervous system
What are the two parts of the autonomic nervous system
Sympathetic Nervous System
Parasympathetic Nervous System
both systems lead eachother
Sympathetic Nervous System
Fight - or - Flight system
- mobilises resources for action
- protects the body in stressful situations
Parasympathetic Nervous System
Rest - and - Digest
- Calms the body down after being in a stressful situaton
- Conserves energy and resources
What is your prefrontal cortex for
- Appraisal/Evaluation
- Decision-Making
- Goal-Setting/Action
- Emotion Regulation
What is your amygdala for
- Emotional arousal
- Emotional response
- Classical Conditioning
Hippocampus
Emotional Memory
Right Side of the brain
responsible for emotional perception
Left Side of the brain
Understanding the actual words
Physiological Response to Stress
- Glucose (energy)
- Adrenaline (stimulate sympathetic nervous system, release cortisol)
- Cortisol (release glucose)
- Activation of amygdala - hippocampus interaction
Weapon Focus
Bottom up attention - In a stressful situation we focus attention of small details
Kensinger et al 2007
Monkey - Emotionally Neutral Stimuli
Snakes - Emotionally fear-inducing
Clear effect of valence on the memory of the primary object (snakes remembered better than monkeys)
“snake” group remember less of the background information compared to “monkey” group - people remember more emotional information at the cost of the background information
Cahill and McGaugh (1995) (slide story experiment)
People viewed the same images but with either an emotional background story or a neutral backgournd story
- Asked to rate emotionality
- Return 2 weeks later to recall story again
Results of Cahill and McGaugh
Better recall from events of emotional slides
Better recognition at emotional slides
Kensinger and Schater (2006)
Basball game study
They asked people details from 6 days post game and then 26 weeks post game
Kensinger and Schater (2006) results
The people who had negative memories were more consistent over time
The people that ahd positive memories were more confident theres was right
Flashbulb memories
In a really important moment (usually negative)
- Highly emotionally charged events have extremely vivid details, even for a long time afterwards e.g 9/11 people have detialed memories so many years later
Kensinger and Schater (2006) define flashbulb memories as…
- dramatic events
- often but not always negaitve
- social and personal significance
highly detailed
Talarico & Rubin (2003)
Tested how accurate flashbulb memories are
Collected data about students hearing about the 9/11 attacks
Did a second recall 7, 42 or 224 days later
Results of Talarico & Rubin (2003)
Everyday normal events were remembered in more detail than ‘flashbulb memory’
Over time both flashbulb and everyday event memories decreased at the same rate
People became increasingly confident that their flashbulb memory was correct (show that there is nothing special about emotional events in terms of memory recall)
Why are flashbulb memories so vivid
Emotions aid the enconding and retrieval process
Repeated recall amongst others will consolidate the memory
Limitations of Flashbulb memories
still limited and very much subject to forgetting and they are ultimately reconstruction memories. (You reconstruct the reconstruction every time you remember something)
Mood Congruent Memory
When we are sad,
sad memories are more accessible than happy memories. This cognitive bias can maintain the cycle of depression.
Traumatic Memory
Traumatic events are
likely to be vividly remembered, and difficult to forget. Persistent intrusive memory can contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder
PTSD
Includes emotion dysregulation
includes over and under modulation
Under Modulation
We are not controlling it ——> reexperiencing can cause panic attacks
Over Modulation
Dissociation and numbness
Dissociation
- Fragmentation of functions that are usually interrogated (consciousness, memory, identity, body awareness, and perception of the self and the environment)
- Alteration in time sense, perception, attentional focus and awareness of pain
Assimilation
The process by which new experiences are labelled/recognised/understood by applying an existing scheme (for example, toddlers may assimilate a plane to their existing schema of ‘bird’)
Accommodation
The process by which an existing scheme is modified because a new experience does not fit into the current scheme
Sensorimotor (0-2 years) stage
Infants awareness only expressed through their sensory and motor abilities
- little knowledge of world around them
Preoperational (2-6 years) stage
Can use symbols to represent objects but do not yet reason logically
- very perception bound
Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)
Can think logically about real objects and situations
Core tenets of Piagets theory of Cognitive Development
- Discontinuous
- Invariant
- Domain General
- Universal
Formal operational stage (12 years and >)
Can think and reason abstractly in hypothetical terms
- Pendulum Problem, propositional ideas)
What is a continuous view of development
Fundamental skills already present early in life and development involves gradual changes throughout the lifespan (changes in information processing abilities)
A not B error
Will reach to find object that has been hidden under cloth A even once seeing it be placed under cloth B
Conservation Tasks
Error in preoperational child where they are unable to grasp that properties of objects do not change when its appearance is altered superficially (two glasses of the same volume, but with different shape)
Class Illusion-test
Preoperational child will fail as they are unable to compare a class of objects with its subclasses without confusing the two problems like “Are there more cats or more animals?”
Three Mountains Task
Preoperational children are unable to grasp that another’s visual perspective may be different. Inability to say what people viewing three mountains from different angles will see (egocentric)
Why do scientists focus so much on gaze when studying infants
it is the richest source of behavioural data in infant cognition research as they cannot speak
Preferential Looking Technique
Show two patterns simultaneously side-by-side. If infants consistently look longer at one pattern over another, it means that the infant visually prefers that pattern.
Deferred imitation task with 6-week-olds (method, results, and interpretation)
Method: make specific face at an infant Followed by a still face. Then take pacifier out of mouth and observe.
Results: Infant (even neonates) imitates the face
Interpretation: infants have already linked sight and proprioceptive feedback
Carolyn Rovee-Collier’s Mobile Task findings
3-4-month-olds can remember the relationship between kicking and making the mobile move for up to 20 minutes!
The Violation-of-Expectation Paradigm Method:
Infants are shown two events at different times (not simultaneously). The only difference between the events is that one event seems to show something physically impossible / magical occurring, while the other event looks similar, but appears to be entirely possible / non-magical.
The Violation-of-Expectation Paradigm results
Infants fixate on impossible / magical events longer than the a possible / non-magical event.
The Violation-of-Expectation Paradigm interpretation
Looking longer at impossible event suggests infants understand the physical concept being tested. Infants are ‘surprised’ and they had to have an expectation in order to BE surprised
Why do modern scientists doubt infants inability to understand object permenance
modern research measuring eye gaze show that infants’ eyes correctly look to the B location even though they make an incorrect manual search
Emergence
If children express an incorrect response, then we can conclude that the knowledge has yet to emerge
Expression
Expression itself is challenging, the knowledge may have emerged but they are struggling to express it
Limitation of Piagets class inclusion test
The question itself is framed interestingly
“OR” often considered as indicating that the choices represented are mutually exclusive - its been found that removing mention of colour reduces emphasis on comparing sub-classes
Limitations of Piagets conservation experiment
Pragmatics of asking the question twice (if first question is omitted, performance improves among 6-year olds)
Setting the second question in an accidental context (glass container had a crack and so water poured into a different sized container)
- if it was just about conservation, this wouldn’t have any effect
speech-gesture mismatch
Children can show understanding in their gestures before showing that understanding in speech - these particular children are more receptive to new information
Matchers/mismatchers experiment
Found higher % of improvement in mismatchers that showed gesturing suggesting the correct answer but were unable to express this through speech. this shows that understanding reaches speech last, but the conceptual understanding is inside of us
Limitation of 3-mountains task
It involves many complex excecutive processes beyond seeing from others visual perspectives, such as mental rotation, working memory etc)
Policeman Task: Method, results, interpretation
Method: Child is told that they need to hide the doll in one of the four quadrants so that the police officers will not find it
Results: 90% of 3-5 year olds chose quadrant C
Interpretation: Children DO think about other peoples visual perspectives, its easier for them to express this ability in a simpler task compared to 3 mountains task
Theory of Mind
The knowledge that other people have a mind, and things that have minds will behave differently to things without a mind.
Sally-Anne False Belief Task: Method, results, and interpretation
Method: In a story, sally develops a false belief. Children know the truth, but Sally does not. They are asked where Sally will look for her ball.
Results: Three year olds answer that Sally will look where the ball actually is (egocentrically)
- 4-years-old, children answer that Sally will look where she last saw the ball (obvious to them)
Interpretation
3-year-olds are egocentric. They think they know everyone knows what they know. But 4-year olds are different
Violation of Expectancy Paradigm (Onishi & Baillargeon) method, results, and interpretation
Method: The experimenter develops a false belief about the location of the watermelon toy. Then, the infant sees them either act on their false belief, or act based on what the infant knows to be true. They then measure how long infants continue looking
Results: Infants looked longer when the person with a false belief looks for the watermelon in the correct location, instead of looking in the location they last saw it
Interpretation: The infants expected the person to go to the wrong location, based on her false belief, and they were surprised that she went to the correct location
