The cognitive approach Lecture # 4: October 6, 2004

1. The cognitive approachLecture # 4:October 6, 2004

2. Erdmann & Van Lindern • Support for Schacter: effects seen only when a situationally appropriate cue is present • Results also support James and autonomic specificity because effects of orciprenaline were observed in self-reports of anxiety, not anger… (even though situation was anger-eliciting). • Orciprenaline has physiological effects similar to anxiety rather than anger

3. Cognitive approach: Appraisal • Emphasizes the importance of cognition at the beginning of the sequence of events leading up to the elicitation of an emotion. • In contrast, cognitive labeling (e.g., Schacter) emphasizes the importance of cognition at the end of the sequence. • Modern appraisal research falls into one of two different categories: component approaches or goal-relevance approaches.

4. Appraisal theories • Magda Arnold (1960)… a new view. • 1980s: A number of psychologists independently proposed detailed and ‘comprehensive’ sets of appraisal dimensions to explain the elicitation and differentiation of emotion • Methodology: Emotion episodes, verbal report

5. Definition of appraisal • Arnold described these as: Direct, immediate, nonreflective, automatic ‘sense judgments’ about the harm or benefit that events signify for an individual, given his/her experience and aims • For Lazarus, appraisals are ‘relational meanings’ describing the implications of a particular object or situation for one’s personal well-being

6. Richard Lazarus • Cognitive-relational-motivational theory • Primary versus secondary appraisals • Core relational theme • Know the evidence in support of the theory

8. Lazarus vs. Zajonc • Zajonc: ‘Mere exposure effect’ • Shows that emotion can occur in the absence of cognitive processing: “Preferences need no inferences”. • Main problem involves differences in the definition of cognition.

9. Preferences vs. basic emotions • Do you think that Lazarus and Zajonc are discussing the same basic phenomenon? • Alternative explanations for the ‘mere exposure effect’ (e.g., priming, familiarity) • Discrete basic emotions: Universal, functional • E.g., Ekman’s basic emotions

10. Major criticisms of the appraisal approach • Critics challenge the claim that elaborate cognitive evaluations can be performed during the few milliseconds that seem sufficient to bring about an emotion. • Emotions are ‘hot’, while cognition is ‘cold’ • No agreement on the number or nature of appraisal dimensions that exist.

11. What is missing? Another role for cognition? • In Oatley and Johnson-Laird’s communicative theory, a specific ‘mode’ of organization is imposed on brain function when a particular emotion is elicited • This has consequences for cognition / information processing (i.e., the effects of emotion on cognition). • Anecdote– Alone in the coffee shop at night • Reading for next week: Mathews’ (1993) paper read it in the context of functional considerations (i.e., Oatley and Johnson-Laird’s theory).

12. Mode Theory: Oatley and Johnson-Laird’s Communicative Theory (1988; 1995) • There are a limited number of basic emotions • Each represents the solution to a particular problem of adaptation (species-specific) • These have been incorporated into our nervous systems through evolution and natural selection • Functional, adaptive… and have consequences that are superior to acting randomly, or not acting at all. • Emotions are ‘heuristics’

13. ‘Mode’ theory (continued) • The elicitation of emotion imposes a particular mode of organization on the nervous system, consistent with the function of that particular emotion. • This simplifies and specializes us to respond to a personally-relevant event or stimulus in our environment in an adaptive manner. • This is an example of a goal-relevance theory.

15. Thought question • What differentiates basic emotions according to the theories that we have studied so far in this course? • Darwinian / Evolutionary • James-Lange peripheral • Schachter / Mandler (cognitive labeling) • Cognitive: Appraisal theories • Cognitive: Goal-relevance theories (e.g., Oatley and Johnson-Laird)