Emotion and cognition

Affect- experience of feeling/emotion

Emotion- brief but intense experience e.g. emotion of fear if car drives towards you but fear subsides as car breaks 

Mood- less intense than emotion, unclear what factors cause mood, longer lasting personality disposition 

Preferences- decisions/form of affect, decisions on what you like/dislike form a weak emotional experience 

Affective judgement- decision on what a person likes/dislikes 

Watson and Clark's (1994) definition of emotion- distinct, integrared, psychphysiological response systems...an emotion contains three differentiable response systems
1. Prototypic form of expression (facial)
2. Pattern of consistent autonomic changes 
3. Distinct subjective feeling state      Lang (1971) suggested behavioural, physiological and cog/verbal component

Huge number of emotional states e.g. happiness, sadness, interest, boredom

BASIC EMOTION APPROACH- all emotional experiences are a mix of the basic emotions. Many researchers rely on limited number of discrete emotions- lack of consensus which ones
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 (universal, pan-cultural so indep of culture/upbringing)

Ekman et al (1972)- facil recog of emotion studies- what characteristics determine whether emotion is basic? Ekman (1999) distinct univeral signals, distinct physiology, present in other primates, quick onset, brief duration, distinct thoughts/memories/images/subjective 

DIMENSIONAL APPROACH- affect grid (Lang, 1988) valence and arousal, pp rate international affective picture system (IAPS) using these dimensions, sometimes a third dimension of dominance/control, C-shaped pattern
Problem: some emotions combine attributes that dimensional models incompatible with e.g. nostalgia +ve valence of past experience, -ve valence/sadness of their passing Self Assessment Manikin 

Huge number of emotional states e.g. happiness, sadness, interest, boredom

BASIC EMOTION APPROACH- all emotional experiences are a mix of the basic emotions. Many researchers rely on limited number of discrete emotions- lack of consensus which ones
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 (universal, pan-cultural so indep of culture/upbringing)

Ekman et al (1972)- facil recog of emotion studies- what characteristics determine whether emotion is basic? Ekman (1999) distinct univeral signals, distinct physiology, present in other primates, quick onset, brief duration, distinct thoughts/memories/images/subjective 

DIMENSIONAL APPROACH- affect grid (Lang, 1988) valence and arousal, pp rate international affective picture system (IAPS) using these dimensions, sometimes a third dimension of dominance/control, C-shaped pattern
Problem: some emotions combine attributes that dimensional models incompatible with e.g. nostalgia +ve valence of past experience, -ve valence/sadness of their passing Self Assessment Manikin 

James-Lange- stim > sensory perception > bodily changes/specific autonomic arousal e.g. HR > emotional experience e.g. fear 
Subjective experience of emotion= slave to physiology of emotion. Feedback from bodily changes (phys signals) lead us to experience emotion. Behaviour PRECEDES cog, emotions feel different as have different physiological structures 

Cannon-Bard- stim > sensory perception > general autonom arousal e.g. HR and particular emotion experienced SIMULTANEOUSLY
As result of pattern of sub-cortical stimulation. General autonomic arousal change at same time as emotion due to activity to thalamus (sub-cortical)

Schachter & Singer/ Arousal Interpretation/Cog Theory- stim > sensory perception > general autonom > cog appraisals (context, previous experience, prior knowledge) > particular emotion experienced
2 factors essential- high physiological arousal, emotional interpretation of that arousal (cog component) - if either absent do not experience the emotion 

Effect of suproxin deception
- 3 groups injected with adrenaline (effects similar to arousal) some correctly informed ^HR, some misinformed, some not informed 
- 1 group saline placebo control and not told any effects 

Context manipulation: after injection placed in situ aimed to produce joy/euphoria or anger- assessed by q-aire
Another manipulation: put in room with other people for par of exp

Hyp: adrenaline groups with high arousal but couldnt say arousal was from drug should feel most emotion
Context influence emotion experienced

R: with euphoria groups: misinformed (most happy) > ignorant/uninformed > informed
with angry groups: ignorant/uninformed (angriest) > placebo/saline/control > informed 

C: despite identical physiological response in adrenaline group, experience of emotion influenced by info prev given and context. Support for cog component in experience of emotion 

Zajonc (1984) NO
Affect and cognition= separate and partially indep systems
Cog processes not necessary to produce an affective response to stim

AFFECTIVE PRIMACY DEBATE- does emotion precede cognition? Tested using varaint of mere exposure- prefer prev presented stim than novel 
P: presented images subliminally/below conscious recog to pp whilst doing different primary task. Made pref judgements to stim presented above as well as novel stim

R: higher liking rating to prev subliminally exposed stim (assessed by recog task)
Emotional response despite no cog processing of subliminal stim

C: emotion precedes cog (primacy debate) so cog not required for emotional experience 

Murphy & Zajonc (1993)- chinese ideograph rate how much like, prior to stim presentation shown prime stim of happy/angry face or no prime for 4ms or 1s
4ms prime signig dif in liking rating, for both happy and angry faces 

So does affect require cognition? YES

Zajonc- cog appraisal not required to experience emotion
Lazarus- dev theroy from Schachter and Singer's work- 'cog appraisal (of meaning/signif) underlies and is an integral feature of all emotional states.'

pp shown anxiety evoking films stone age circumcision ritual (subincision) and workshop accidents
Conditions
1. No soundtrack (control)
2. Trauma narrative- emphasised danger/fear/primitiveness of procedure
3. Denial narrative- denied pain of process/willing pp 
4. Scientific/intellectualisation narrative- detached 

Measured arousal/stress using pulse/GSR during viewing 

R: 3/4 resulted in reduced stress/emotional response compared to 2, when contrasted with 1 (control)

C: manipulating appraisals influences an emotional experience 

Different emotional states can be distniguished by S and L (1993) components e.g. anger and guilt- both have 1 and 2 (occur when goals are blocked) but differ by secondary components (guilt- self accountability, anger- look for another)

COGNITIVE APPRAISAL- interpretation of a situation that helps determine the nature and intensity of emotional response 

Cognitive Appraisal Theory- appraisal= eval of situ relevant to goals/concerns/well-being 
3 TYPES OF APPRAISAL
PRIMARY- ID of stim/situ as to whether there is threat to personal well-being (+ve/stressful/irrelevant) significance/meaning of event to idv 
SECONDARY- determine what personal resources available to cope with situ/stim
REAPPRAISALS- monitor 1/2 and modify if necessary 

6 Appraisal components- Smith and Lazarus (1993)
1. MOTIVATIONAL RELEVANCE- related to personal commitments
2. MOTIVATIONAL CONGRUENCE- consistent with goals 
3. ACCOUNTABILITY- who deserves credit or blame 
4. PROBLEM-FOCUSED COPING POTENTIAL- can situation be resolved
5. EMOTION-FOCUSED COPING POTENTIAL- can situation be handled psychologically
6. FUTURE EXPECTANCY- how likely is it that the situation will change