Learning outcomes for 3.2
Cognitive Level of Analysis: Cognition and Emotion
A little insight into the power of emotions in cognitive processes:
- People remember better the experiences that involve emotions. Emotions are rich and diverse, and they are often what make the experience something special. Antonio Damasio, a brain researcher explains that emotions are simply the physical signs of the body which react to outside/external stimuli.
- The three components of emotion:
Physiological changes; arousal of the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system that are not conscious
Subjective feelings; a person's own subjective feeling of an emotion (e.g. happiness)
Associated behavior; such as smiling [happy] or running away [frightened]
- A perceived dangerous event or stimulus will result in a physiological response known as fight or flight, which prepares the individual for direct action to confront the danger or to avoid to, and a cognitive appraisal of arousal - a decision about what to do based on previous experience.
- Discuss the extent to which cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion:
Studies performed on animals and humans indicate that the stress hormones (e.g. adrenaline) are released when strong emotions are evoked.
- Discuss the extent to which cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion:
① Biological factors in emotion:
The amygdala is a small structure in the temporal love that is known to be critical in the brain's emotional circuit. The amygdala is thought to have an important role in emotional memories.Studies performed on animals and humans indicate that the stress hormones (e.g. adrenaline) are released when strong emotions are evoked.
In The Emotional Brain (1999), the author LeDoux delineates two biological pathways of emotions in the brain.
LeDoux's model of biological pathways of emotion in the brain
- Short route: goes from the thalamus to the amygdala for induction of emotional response
- Long route: passes via neocortex and hippocampus before reaching an emotional response
Most of these processes are non-conscious.
According to LeDoux, the advantages of having direct and indirect pathways to the amygdala is flexibility in responses. When danger is perceived, the fast and direct pathway is useful because it saves time. Long pathways are useful because they allow for a more thorough evaluation of a situation that can help people and animals to avoid inappropriate responses to certain situations.
According to LeDoux, the advantages of having direct and indirect pathways to the amygdala is flexibility in responses. When danger is perceived, the fast and direct pathway is useful because it saves time. Long pathways are useful because they allow for a more thorough evaluation of a situation that can help people and animals to avoid inappropriate responses to certain situations.
② Cognitive factors in emotion - appraisal:
Lazarus' definition of appraisal: evaluations related to how the situation will impact one's personal well-being. If the appraisal is positive: positive emotions will emerge. If the appraisal is negative: appraisal that assesses potential harm will result in negative emotions.
Lazarus (1975): "Cognitive appraisal is an important part of people's reaction to emotional stress , and that stress experiences are not only physiological." This statement means that people are psychological beings that are not simply passively responding to the world - they actively interpret and evaluate their situation.
- According to the appraisal theory, cognitive factors can modulate stress responses, such as the psychological and physiological reactions that are involved in the experience.
- Appraisal can be seen as an evaluation of the situation, like how people evaluate psychological and material resources to cope with the stressful event at hand.
⇒Speisman et al. (1964) An Experimental Manipulation of Emotions Through Cognitive Appraisal
Aim: To investigate the extent to which manipulation of cognitive appraisal could influence emotional experience.
Procedure: In this laboratory experiment, the participants saw anxiety-evoking films, such as one with an aboriginal initiation ceremony where adolescent boys were subjected to unpleasant genital cutting.These films were shown with three different soundtracks that were intended to manipulate emotional reactions. The trauma condition group has a soundtrack with emphasis on the mutilation and pain; the intellectualization condition group has a soundtrack that gave an anthropological interpretation of the initiation ceremony; the denial condition group showed the adolescents as being willing and happy in the ceremony.
During each viewing of the film various objective physiological measures were taken, such as heart rate and galvanic skin response.
Results: The participants in the trauma condition group showed higher physiological measures of stress than the participants in the other two conditions. The results support the appraisal theory in that the manipulation of the participants' cognitive appraisal had significant impacts on the physiological stress reactions. The participants in the trauma condition reacted much more emotionally.
Evaluation: This lab experiment had a lot of controls, so lacks ecological validity. However, research on the role of appraisal in real-life emotional events tend to find the same relationship as the lab results. This study could be a demonstration of how biological and cognitive factors interact in emotion and illustrates LeDoux's theory of the two pathways in emotional processing.
Cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion to a large extent, but in complex ways tat are not well known. Emotions may influence cognitive processes such as memory, and cognitive processes like appraisal can influence emotions, but little is known about the exact workings of the physiological correlates of emotion.
The influence is often bidirectional and this has been explored within health and abnormal psychology. Neuroimaging investigators of emotion have identified areas in the prefrontal loves associated with active reappraisal of the emotional importance of events. This indicates that it is possible to regulate negative emotions via appraisal. (Ochsner and Gross, 2008).
- Evaluate one theory of how emotions may affect one cognitive process (flashbulb theory)
According to LeDoux, the arousal of emotion can facilitate the memory of events that occur during that aroused state. However, these memories might not always be accurate.
The theory of the flashbulb memory was suggested by Brown and Kulik (1977). Flashbulb memory is a special kind of emotional memory which refers to vivid and detailed memories of very emotional events that appear to be recorded in the brain as though with the help of a camera's flash.
Brown and Kulik found that people said that they had very clear memories of where they were, what they did and what they felt when they first learned about an important public occurrence, such as assassinations of JFK, and Martin Luther King. The participants of the study recalled the assassination of JFK most vividly. People in the study were also asked if they had flashbulb memories of personal events... out of the 80 participants, 73 participants said that they had flashbulb memories associated with a personal shock such as a sudden death of a close relative.
Brown and Kulik suggested that there might be a special neural mechanism that triggers an emotional arousal because the event is unexpected or very important. This was only a hypothesis, but it is supported by modern neuroscience. (That is, emotional events are better remembered than less emotional events - perhaps because of the critical role of amygdala.)
Criticisms of the flashbulb theory:
Neisser (1982) questioned the idea of the flashbulb theory because people don't always know that an event important, until later. Neisser suggests that the memories are so vivid because the event itself is rehearsed and reconsidered after the event. According to Neisser, what is called a flashbulb memory might just be a narrative convention. These flashbulb memories are governed by a story-telling schema that follows a specific structure, such as place (where we were), activity (doing what?), informant (who told us?) and affect (how do we feel about it?).
Example: January 28th, 1986:
Seven astronauts on the space shuttle CHALLENGER were killed in an accident. It was a shocking experience for those who saw the shuttle launch, in person or through the TV. Neisser and Harsch (1992) investigated people's memory accuracy of the incident 24 hours after the accident and once again two years later. The participants were confident that their memory was correct, but the researchers found that 40 percent of the memories were distorted in their final reports. Perhaps post-event information had influenced their memories. The researchers concluded that inaccuracy of emotional memories is very common.
It has been stated that current attitudes and emotions also affect the accuracy of memory. Past emotional memories are partly reconstructed based on the individual's current appraisal of events.
Holmberg and Holmes (1994) = found that men who had less happy marriages recalled early interactions in the marriage as being more negative than they really were.
Breckler (1994) = found that people's current attitudes towards blood donation impacted their memories about how they felt when they donated blood in the past.
*These are just theories.
- According to the appraisal theory, cognitive factors can modulate stress responses, such as the psychological and physiological reactions that are involved in the experience.
- Appraisal can be seen as an evaluation of the situation, like how people evaluate psychological and material resources to cope with the stressful event at hand.
⇒Speisman et al. (1964) An Experimental Manipulation of Emotions Through Cognitive Appraisal
Aim: To investigate the extent to which manipulation of cognitive appraisal could influence emotional experience.
Procedure: In this laboratory experiment, the participants saw anxiety-evoking films, such as one with an aboriginal initiation ceremony where adolescent boys were subjected to unpleasant genital cutting.These films were shown with three different soundtracks that were intended to manipulate emotional reactions. The trauma condition group has a soundtrack with emphasis on the mutilation and pain; the intellectualization condition group has a soundtrack that gave an anthropological interpretation of the initiation ceremony; the denial condition group showed the adolescents as being willing and happy in the ceremony.
During each viewing of the film various objective physiological measures were taken, such as heart rate and galvanic skin response.
Results: The participants in the trauma condition group showed higher physiological measures of stress than the participants in the other two conditions. The results support the appraisal theory in that the manipulation of the participants' cognitive appraisal had significant impacts on the physiological stress reactions. The participants in the trauma condition reacted much more emotionally.
Evaluation: This lab experiment had a lot of controls, so lacks ecological validity. However, research on the role of appraisal in real-life emotional events tend to find the same relationship as the lab results. This study could be a demonstration of how biological and cognitive factors interact in emotion and illustrates LeDoux's theory of the two pathways in emotional processing.
Cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion to a large extent, but in complex ways tat are not well known. Emotions may influence cognitive processes such as memory, and cognitive processes like appraisal can influence emotions, but little is known about the exact workings of the physiological correlates of emotion.
The influence is often bidirectional and this has been explored within health and abnormal psychology. Neuroimaging investigators of emotion have identified areas in the prefrontal loves associated with active reappraisal of the emotional importance of events. This indicates that it is possible to regulate negative emotions via appraisal. (Ochsner and Gross, 2008).
- Evaluate one theory of how emotions may affect one cognitive process (flashbulb theory)
According to LeDoux, the arousal of emotion can facilitate the memory of events that occur during that aroused state. However, these memories might not always be accurate.
The theory of the flashbulb memory was suggested by Brown and Kulik (1977). Flashbulb memory is a special kind of emotional memory which refers to vivid and detailed memories of very emotional events that appear to be recorded in the brain as though with the help of a camera's flash.
Brown and Kulik found that people said that they had very clear memories of where they were, what they did and what they felt when they first learned about an important public occurrence, such as assassinations of JFK, and Martin Luther King. The participants of the study recalled the assassination of JFK most vividly. People in the study were also asked if they had flashbulb memories of personal events... out of the 80 participants, 73 participants said that they had flashbulb memories associated with a personal shock such as a sudden death of a close relative.
Brown and Kulik suggested that there might be a special neural mechanism that triggers an emotional arousal because the event is unexpected or very important. This was only a hypothesis, but it is supported by modern neuroscience. (That is, emotional events are better remembered than less emotional events - perhaps because of the critical role of amygdala.)
Criticisms of the flashbulb theory:
Neisser (1982) questioned the idea of the flashbulb theory because people don't always know that an event important, until later. Neisser suggests that the memories are so vivid because the event itself is rehearsed and reconsidered after the event. According to Neisser, what is called a flashbulb memory might just be a narrative convention. These flashbulb memories are governed by a story-telling schema that follows a specific structure, such as place (where we were), activity (doing what?), informant (who told us?) and affect (how do we feel about it?).
Example: January 28th, 1986:
Seven astronauts on the space shuttle CHALLENGER were killed in an accident. It was a shocking experience for those who saw the shuttle launch, in person or through the TV. Neisser and Harsch (1992) investigated people's memory accuracy of the incident 24 hours after the accident and once again two years later. The participants were confident that their memory was correct, but the researchers found that 40 percent of the memories were distorted in their final reports. Perhaps post-event information had influenced their memories. The researchers concluded that inaccuracy of emotional memories is very common.
It has been stated that current attitudes and emotions also affect the accuracy of memory. Past emotional memories are partly reconstructed based on the individual's current appraisal of events.
Holmberg and Holmes (1994) = found that men who had less happy marriages recalled early interactions in the marriage as being more negative than they really were.
Breckler (1994) = found that people's current attitudes towards blood donation impacted their memories about how they felt when they donated blood in the past.
*These are just theories.
