Cognition & Emotion 1

• before the 1980's what was cognition and emotion often seen as?


  separate topics
• what did cognitive experiments traditionally use

  normal and healthy participants (mostly undergrad students)
• What is emotion?


  a factor 'which may be important but whose inclusion at this point would unnecessarily complicate the cognitive-scientific enterprise' (Gardner 1985)
• emotion was ... as the domain to psychotherapists & clinical psychologists?

  DYSFUNCTIONAL
• what is affect?


  the experience of feeling/emotion
• What is emotion?


  * a brief but intense experience
• what is affective judgement?


  a decision on what a person likes/dislikes
• Watson and Clark 1994 definition on emotion

  'distinct,integrated psychophysiological response system
• Watson and Clark 1994 emotion contains what 3 differentiable response systems?

  1) a prototypic form of behavioural expression (normally facial)

  
  

  2) a pattern of consistent autonomic changes

  
  

  3) a distinct subjective feeling state
• What sort of component did Cf lang 1971 define emotion as?


  behavioural, physiological + a cognitive/verbal component
• What are the 2 approaches to classify emotional experiences?

  basic emotion approach & dimensional approach
• give information about the basic emotions approach

  * many researchers rely on a limited no of discrete emotions

  * there is a lack of consensus on which emotions = basic

  
  

  Arnold: anger, aversion, courage, dejection, desire, despair, fear, hate, hope, love & sadness.

  
  

  James: fear, grief, love & rage

  
  

  The 'Big Five' - Anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness.

  - Are universal/pan-cultural :. are independent of culture + upbringing.

  
  

  Ekman et al (1971, 1972) - facial recognition of emotion studies.
• Cross cultural studies - Rosenzweig et al 1999 results

  performance is always nearly above chance
• basic emotions - Ekman 1999

  not all emotions are listed :

  
  

  1) Distinct universal signals (often facial expression to differentiate one facial expression from another)

  
  

  2) Distinct physiology

  
  

  3) Present in other primates - seen expressions of fear etc. in monkeys/chimps etc.

  
  

  4) Quick onset

  5)Brief duration

  
  

  6) Distinct thoughts, memories, images & subjective experience.
• The dimensional approach - an affect grid Lang 1988

  2 dimensions:

  
  

  1) valence - how positive or negative you feel/towards another stimulus

  
  

  2) arousal - what level of physiological arousal do you feel?

  
  

  ppts asked to rate pictures of 2 dimensions

  was International affective picture system images + International affective digitized sounds

  
  

  Lang gave ppts a Self Assessment Manikin 9 point rating scale

  
  

  Valence dimension: from high valence (pos) - neg

  
  

  arousal dimension:

  do you feel high levels of arousal - then going down to low levels arousal on the 9 point scale
• an affect grid


  - more neutral in the middle - gap shows there's very few arousing things

  
  

  - IAPs images also rated a 3rd dimension: dominance/control + C-shaped pattern
• issues with an affect grid

  How many dimensions should a model use?

  
  

  - Some emotions combine parts that dimensional models are incompatible with

  (e.g. nostalgia)
• James-Lange theory of emotion - somatic body theory

  The subjective experience of emotion = slave to the physiology of emotion

  
  

  Feedback from bodily changes (physiological signals) leads to us experiencing an emotion

  
  

  Behaviour precedes cognition

  
  

  Love feels different to fear bcs each has a unique physiological signature.
• Cannon-Bard theory of emotion:

  Arousal & subjective experience of a emotion/feeling occur simultaneously as the result of sub-cortical stimulation
• Schachter & Singer a cognitive theory of emotion:

  2 factors are essential for the experience of emotion:

  
  

  To have an emotional level you need to have + then be able to interpret that model:

  
  

  High physiological arousal

  An emotional interpretation of that arousal

  
  

  What if one/both of these factors is absent?
• Schachter & Singe 1962 classic study?

  Investigated effects of a vitamin compound ('Suproxin) on vision: BIG LIE!!!!

  - 3 groups were injected with adrenalin, 1 group with saline solution (placebo-control group - not told about any effects (ignorant)}

  Of those injected with adrenalin

  Some were correctly informed about the side-effects (racing heart)

  Some misinformed (headaches + numb feet)

  Some not informed (adrenalin ignorant)

  
  

  Context manipulation: after the injection ppts were placed in a situation, aimed to produce joy/euphoria/anger.

  The emotional state of ppts was later assessed by self-report questionnaire and independent judges.

  Hypothesis:

  Those that were highly physiologically aroused (adrenalin groups) but who couldn't interpret their arousal as being produced by the drug, should feel the > emotion + that the context will influence the emotion experienced (happiness/anger)

  Results (adrenaline & placebo groups)

  Euphoria (happy groups)

  Misinformed group felt the happiest

  Followed by the ignorant/uninformed group

  Followed by the informed group

  Angry groups

  Ignorant/uniformed felt the angriest

  Followed by the placebo/saline/control group

  Followed by the informed group.

  
  

  Ppts in euphoria group reported feeling the happiest and vv.

  So, despite the identical physiological response in the adrenaline groups, the experience of emotion was influenced by information previously given and the situation/context that the participant was in.

  Support for a cognitive component in the experience of emotion.