Affect and Cognition Lecture Notes

Affect and Cognition

Theories of emotion

James-Lange -- emotional experiences come from our perceptions of physiological reactions to events

Cannon-Bard -- stimuli simultaneously elicit both physiological reactions and subjective experiences

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory -- when we experience physiological reactions we search for the causes which will determine the label we attach to that arousal; what external cues suggest we should be feeling

Many studies show that cognitive and situational factors play a role in emotion -- supporting Shachter's approach

Of the older theories, more evidence for Cannon-Bard approach until recently

Sophisticated equipment indicates that different emotions have different physiological patterns --- consistent with James-Lange

Changing facial expressions sometimes produce changes in emotion

Facial feedback hypothesis -- Facial expressions may provide information that feeds back to brain to influence our experiences of emotion

Several studies (Laird, 1984; McCanne & Anderson, 1987) show that enhancing or suppressing tension in certain muscles associated with smiles or frowns affects participants' emotional reactions to stimuli

Influence of affect on cognition

There is considerable evidence of a mood-congruent judgment effect

There is often a good match between our moods and our thoughts and our judgments of other people

When interviewers are in a good mood, they tend to assign higher ratings to job applicants (Baron, 1993)

Affect can have other effects on cognition

Evidence that being in a happy mood can sometimes increase creativity

Do positive and negative moods produce opposite effects on cognition?

Insufficient evidence for firm answer, but despite evidence of the mood congruent judgment effect there is growing evidence that positive and negative moods do not always produce opposite effects

Influence of cognition on affect

Shachter's theory suggests that our feelings are sometimes ambiguous so we look outward for clues to our emotions -- our emotions are determine by the cognitive labels we select

Some schemas contain strong affective components. When activated they will affect the way we feel about persons or situations

Our thoughts can influence our reactions to emotion-producing events

Expectancies can influence our reactions to new events and stimuli

Affect infusion model

Forgas (1995) proposes that affect influences cognition through two mechanisms

Affect tends to prime related cognitive categories

Also, affective states may influence attention and encoding so that we attend to and spend more effort processing mood congruent information

Affect may serve as a heuristic cue, i.e., "affect as information"

If asked how we feel about something in the social world, we may use my current mood to answer question even if it is unrelated to the stimulus

Priming mechanism influences social cognition when we engage in substantive thought -- interpreting new information and relate it to existing knowledge

Affect-as-information mechanism influences social cognition when we think heuristically, i.e., when we try to apply as little cognitive effort as necessary

Attribution notes continue on the following page.......

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Theories of emotion

James-Lange -- emotional experiences come from our perceptions of physiological reactions to events

Cannon-Bard -- stimuli simultaneously elicit both physiological reactions and subjective experiences

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory -- when we experience physiological reactions we search for the causes which will determine the label we attach to that arousal; what external cues suggest we should be feeling

Many studies show that cognitive and situational factors play a role in emotion -- supporting Shachter's approach

Of the older theories, more evidence for Cannon-Bard approach until recently

Sophisticated equipment indicates that different emotions have different physiological patterns --- consistent with James-Lange

Changing facial expressions sometimes produce changes in emotion

Facial feedback hypothesis -- Facial expressions may provide information that feeds back to brain to influence our experiences of emotion

Several studies (Laird, 1984; McCanne & Anderson, 1987) show that enhancing or suppressing tension in certain muscles associated with smiles or frowns affects participants' emotional reactions to stimuli

Influence of affect on cognition

There is considerable evidence of a mood-congruent judgment effect

There is often a good match between our moods and our thoughts and our judgments of other people

When interviewers are in a good mood, they tend to assign higher ratings to job applicants (Baron, 1993)

Affect can have other effects on cognition

Evidence that being in a happy mood can sometimes increase creativity

Do positive and negative moods produce opposite effects on cognition?

Insufficient evidence for firm answer, but despite evidence of the mood congruent judgment effect there is growing evidence that positive and negative moods do not always produce opposite effects

Influence of cognition on affect

Shachter's theory suggests that our feelings are sometimes ambiguous so we look outward for clues to our emotions -- our emotions are determine by the cognitive labels we select

Some schemas contain strong affective components. When activated they will affect the way we feel about persons or situations

Our thoughts can influence our reactions to emotion-producing events

Expectancies can influence our reactions to new events and stimuli

Affect infusion model

Forgas (1995) proposes that affect influences cognition through two mechanisms

Affect tends to prime related cognitive categories

Also, affective states may influence attention and encoding so that we attend to and spend more effort processing mood congruent information

Affect may serve as a heuristic cue, i.e., "affect as information"

If asked how we feel about something in the social world, we may use my current mood to answer question even if it is unrelated to the stimulus

Priming mechanism influences social cognition when we engage in substantive thought -- interpreting new information and relate it to existing knowledge

Affect-as-information mechanism influences social cognition when we think heuristically, i.e., when we try to apply as little cognitive effort as necessary

Attribution notes continue on the following page.......

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