Emotion and Cognition Distinct states of the mind, displayed early in life (babies/innate).They are a combination of these components:Phenomenal ExperiencePhysiological PatternVerbal+ nonverbal expressionTypical expressions are distinct states of the mind, displayed early in life (babies/innate), thus hard-coded Many emotions are expressed in the human face. Some emotions are not displayed by the face (jealousy).There are some ambiguous and some clear expressions of emotion.According to Paul Ekman there are 6 basic emotional expressions (that can be mixed):Fear, anger, disgust, joy, neutral, sadness, surprise“Emotions are universal across cultures” – Paul Ekman Russell (1994): “There is low agreement about the classification of expressions” Ecological problem: Real world scenarios not taken into account (Forced-choice response format, within-subject design, preselected photographs of posed facial expressions design was pre-set by Ekman).It doesn’t make sense to make categorical classification of emotions, dimensions make more sense Elfenbein & Ambady (2002): “Emotions are universal to a limited degree”Minority groups recognize emotional expressions of majority better than the majority group themselves Friesen & Matsumoto (2000): Display rules shape emotion dependent on cultureJapanese people adapted their expressions to hide their negative emotionEmotions are flexile and they may not necessarily reflect true feelingsJapanese people tend to display more surprise Kitayama et al (2000):Positive emotions are important for Americans, and the more positive and the less negative, the better.In Japan, people who tend to have a lot of positive emotion also have a lot of negative emotion.In Japan, some positive emotions are felt more and considered more important,...

In the end, all our behavior is produced by the brain. Neuroscience can help remove terminological vagueness (emotion vs. cognition, basic vs. complex)Discover underlying mechanism of emotion (and psychopathology) Reptilian brain: Respiration, heart (basic bodily functions)Limbic system: store dangerous situations, hunger (adaptive survival functions)Neocortex: consciousness, reasoning, predicting the future (high-order thinking) Problem with MacLean’s view: Limbic system is present in reptilians too, and it’s similar to ours Parts: Fornix: carries information from hippocampus to hypothalamusSeptal area: pleasure, reward, reinforcement.Corpus Callosum: connects both brain hemispheres.Thalamus: relay station that determines which information can pass through to sensory areas or not. What is salient? (sleep and awake function)Hippocampus: important for delivery of information from short-term to long-term memory! No hippocampus, no new memoryHypothalamus: secretion of hormones related to arousal and sleep, direct connection to autonomic nervous systemAmygdala: Emotion regulation Functions:Evolutionary old and universal systemSimilar in different animals (incl. humans)Emotion processing: direct adaptive functions to interact with environmentNot all parts are directly involved in emotionsLimbic system is not unique in processing emotionsLimbic system helps in detecting biologically salient stimuli Not only the limbic system, but all layers are important for emotionReflexes: startle reflex (protect the eye), pain, hunger, tasteMidbrain & Limbic system: fear, anger, sadness, joy, affection, interest (reward) à very simple expressions to communicate with othersNeocortex: shame, guilt, contempt, envy, humor, empathy, sympathy à all require...

We were assigned the paper: De Waal, F.B.M. (2011). What is an animal emotion? Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1224, 191-206. Introduction of new term: anthropodenial. It means: it’s bad to deny that other animals might have emotionsStudying emotions in animals can help us understand our own emotionsAnimals can form simpler models for emotional processesA comparative perspective can inform us about:Specificity of behaviorEvolution of behaviorOccurrence of behavior despite certain differences Zajonc: “Affective and cognitive processes are coordinated by separate systems and can operate independently.”VSLazarus: “An emotion cannot be produced without a prior cognitive appraisal.”Support for the primacy of affectLe Doux’ low road (affective blindsight, subliminally presented affective pictures etc)Mere exposure effect: repeated exposure to an object leads to increased positive affective reactionsZajonc’s mere exposure effectParticipants were shown photos of faces. The number of times each face was seen was varied. The more often a face was presented, the better they liked it (Zajonc, 1968).Experiment with words consists of two steps.Step 1. Subliminally present nonsense words such as “zebulons” and “worbus” (visually masked).Step 2. Rate aesthetics of words: Same nonsense words (old/familiar) vsOther nonsense words (novel/unfamiliar)Result. “Familiar” nonsense words were liked more than unfamiliar wordsLazarusThe mere exposure effect can be explained as a form of appraisal of valence, good or bad (which is ‘cognitive’)Preference ≠ Affective reaction Lazarus and Alfert (1964) showed students a filmed circumcision ritual and manipulated the accompanying soundtrack.Some participants heard a soundtrack that minimized the negative emotional impact of the film by denying...

Social function of emotions is underestimated in other theoriesUniversality is overestimated (cultural differences)Emotions are not biologically driven Emotions are social constructions that give shape and meaning to our social worldEmotions are learned behaviors that can be acquired if people are exposed to them within a particular cultureEmotions have an important social role, i.e., they exist to inform and influence each other Broad definition: Capacity to perceive, share, and understand other’s affective states=sympathy, emotional contagion, personal distress, and cognitive perspective takingSympathy (compassion): affective state related to the other, but does not require affective isomorphism. I feel sorry for you because you are sad, but I am not sad myself. -> Link between empathy and prosocial behavior is meditated by sympathy.Personal distress: negative affective state (e.g., anxiety, worry, discomfort) that can be elicited by the affective states of others, but it is self-centered rather than other-oriented. No isomorphic, it sometimes results from emotional contagion (no self-other distinction). When you see other people suffering you might react with a negative affective state motivating you to turn away in order to feel better -> can be reversed by learning how to turn empathy into compassion (can be seen as an emotion-regulation strategies)Emotional contagion: affect sharing that is isomorphic, but does not meet the self-other distinction requirement, nor perspective taking. You feel happy because everyone around you is happy (no knowledge that the others are the source of this state)Cognitive perspective taking: the ability to understand the feelings of others, to represent the mental and affective states of others, without being emotionally involved. Cognitive...