Lecture 5: Emotions and cognitions

We were assigned the paper: De Waal, F.B.M. (2011). What is an animal emotion? Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1224, 191-206.

Why the paper of De Waal?

1. Introduction of new term: anthropodenial. It means: it’s bad to deny that other animals might have emotions
2. Studying emotions in animals can help us understand our own emotions
3. Animals can form simpler models for emotional processes
4. A comparative perspective can inform us about:

• Specificity of behavior
• Evolution of behavior
• Occurrence of behavior despite certain differences

Zajonc-Lazarus debate

Zajonc: “Affective and cognitive processes are coordinated by separate systems and can operate independently.”

VS

Lazarus: “An emotion cannot be produced without a prior cognitive appraisal.”

Support for the primacy of affect

• Le Doux’ low road (affective blindsight, subliminally presented affective pictures etc)
• Mere exposure effect: repeated exposure to an object leads to increased positive affective reactions

Zajonc’s mere exposure effect

• Participants 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) vs
  • Other nonsense words (novel/unfamiliar)
• Result. “Familiar” nonsense words were liked more than unfamiliar words

Lazarus

• The mere exposure effect can be explained as a form of appraisal of valence, good or bad (which is ‘cognitive’)
• Preference ≠ Affective reaction

Lazarus’ experiment

• 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 the pain involved in the surgery and emphasizing the joyful aspects of the procedure.
  • Others heard no soundtrack at all.
  • The way the video was appraised determined the emotional response.

Appraisal conclusion

• Appraisal alters body responses and emotions ->Basis for a discussion:
  • Lazarus: appraisal is a cognitive function
  • Zajonc: appraisal is an implicit function
• Both Lazarus & Zajonc are probably right:
  • Early appraisal is probably not cognitive but an implicit gut feeling (preference)
  • Late/Slow appraisal is cognitive, rational thinking (Mandler) that sometimes can be “quickened” by enough arousal

Arnold’s theory of appraisal

• Appraisal is NOT a conscious interpretation or intellectual judgment
• Rather: fast, rough evaluation, a relational judgment (good for me, bad for me)
• Resulting emotion = felt tendency toward positively appraised events, or away from negatively appraised events
• Emotion is accompanied by drive-inducing physiological changes

Do only humans appraise?

• Animals respond to the suddenness of a situation, its novelty, predictability, correspondence to expectations, or controllability.
• They also know social norms (hierarchy, age, social context)
• So the answer is ‘no’. Also animals can do more than just reacting to an emotional event. They take many things into account.

Conclusions about appraisal

• • Arnold: unconscious feeling of which emotional response is appropriate
  • Early appraisal is probably not cognitive but an implicit gut feeling (preference, experience, novelty)
  • Key mechanism for behavioral flexibility, allowing the adjustment of the organism to complex and changing environments (evolutionary adaptive). 

Emotions color our world: Perception

• Even if the stimulus is the same, we might perceive it differently

Visual illusions

• Dominance of right versus left hemisphere (individual differences!)
• Dominance of one picture category over another
• Also emotion influences our perception

Emotions and consciousness

• Emotional stimuli enhance awareness
• Stimuli congruent with mood are more likely to enter awareness (implications mood disordes)

Emotions drive our attention

• Attention enhances mental representations and allocates neural resources to relevant processes/items/representations
• Bottom-up (distraction/saliency) vs top-down (self-controlled)

Attentional bias in RTs

• Reaction times are a function of attentional biases
• Individual differences:
  • Older people show a stronger bias towards happy expressions
  • Young children do not show an attentional bias (for angry faces)
  • Attentional biases more often found in women than in men, over emotions and over age groups

What drives our attention?

• Biologically salient stimuli
• Species-specific
• Whatever is relevant for us at this particular moment! (mood)

Bad decisions without emotion: Judgement

• Our emotions are often linked to social situations
• Others’ emotions impact on our emotions AND on our judgements (facial feedback theory)

Pupil mimicry

• ...is stronger in within-species interactions and an evolutionary old phenomenon
• …correlates with trust
• …possibly a perspective taking tool
• We associate dilated pupils with positive emotions

Better memories with emotions: Memory

• Emotional arousal activates amygdala
• Amygdala innervates hippocampus --> better memory
• Incidental/implicit/unconscious emotional processing is more likely to enhance memory storage
• Increased arousal facilitates memory consolidation (McGaugh & Cahill)
• Suppressing emotions impairs memory