Emotion & Cognition
1) Emotion Categories and Dimensions
→ Ch. 1, 4
→ Nummenmaa (2014); Fox (2018)
2) Emotions, feelings, moods, and personalities
→ Ch. 2 + 3
→ Laird & Lacasse (2014)
3) Emotions & Neuroscience
→ Ch. 5 + 6
→ Lang (2014)
4) Emotions & Physiology
→ Ch. 8
→ Appelhans et al. (2006)
5) Emotions in humans and other animals
→ Ch. 7
→ de Waal (2011); Kreat et al. (2016)
6) Enhancing mood and cognition with psychedelics
→ Ch. 10
7) Emotions in Social Interactions
→ Kret (2015); Fischer & Hess (2017); de Vignemont & Singer (2006)
8) Evolution of emotions
→ Ch. 9
→ Kret & Ploeger (2015)
Scientific articles
- 11 articles in total
Exam
- 40 multiple choice questions + 5 open questions (answered in English
- Questions are about lectures, book and articles
Questions?
m.e.kret@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
,Lecture 1 – Emotion Categories and Dimensions
Chapter 1 and 2:
Terminology
Biology
Famous models
Neuroscience Outline
Why study emotions?
- Emotions have a huge impact on life
Memory / Attention / Feelings
Not a day without an emotion
Entertainment: want to be happy / thrilled
- Important for survival and social skills
Actions and reactions
- Some mental disorders are extremes of emotional states
E.g. fear: anxiety disorder
- Well-being depends on emotions
Mood
Part I
The Concept of Emotions
- What are emotions?
- Properties of emotions?
- Why do we have emotions?
Emotion & Science
- Eliciting emotions
- Measuring emotions
- Theories & models of emotions
,What are emotions?
OVERLAP → concepts are linked and occur in PARALLEL. Different theories differ in what
aspect comes first.
Physiological reactions
→ can be measured for example by looking at the pupil size; which dilates when we become
aroused/stressed, when we are exposed to emotional situations.
Phenomenal qualities can be understood, roughly and intuitively, as the qualities associated
with a conscious state that constitute "what it's like" to be in that state. Many of the
enduring questions in philosophy of mind are about phenomenal qualities. For example, one
dimension of the mind-body problem is the problem of integrating phenomenal qualities
into the picture of reality presented by the physical sciences. Phenomenal qualities also take
center stage in the philosophy of perception. Are sensory colors objective properties of
external surfaces, or properties of inner states or sense data that we erroneously project
onto external objects? Must a sensory quality be instantiated whenever it is present to
conscious awareness, or might it be merely represented without being instantiated?
Phenomenal qualities are also involved in recent debates about the nature and existence of
cognitive phenomenology, which can be understood as debates about what kinds of
phenomenal qualities there are.
Children are very expressive
→ Typical expressions are distinct states of the mind, displayed early in life (babies/innate),
thus hard-coded (from birth on). There is something in our genetics that may make the
expression of emotions universal. But they also develop! Babies are not yet jealous.
→ Some emotions are hardcoded, universal and we all have them. And other emotions
emerge later in development or can be cultural specific.
, What are emotions?
Distinct state of mind, displayed early in life (babies/innate)
Properties of emotions
- Distinct from what?
- How universal?
Ambiguous Expressions of Emotion
→ facial expressions can be very ambiguous, especially real life expressions
Clear Expressions of Emotion
→ other people are more expressive and much more clear.
Strong differences between people!
6 Basic emotional expressions
Fear
Anger
Disgust
Joy
Sadness
Surprise
Neutral (control condition)
→ Paul Ekman focuses on these 6 basic emotions, but there are other theories with other
types of emotions that we will discuss later.
Emotional expressions in humans
With those 6 basic emotions → Complexity → very specific muscles configurations
associated with it.
All those muscles are mapped, they all have numbers. There is a facial action coding system,
that uses all those action units. For fear you need this muscle, and that is really very clearly
mapped.
Many emotions are expressed in the human face. Some emotions are not displayed by the
face (jealousy) And the muscles underlying emotional expressions are also complex and
connected to each other. As such, there is lots of variability. There are studies that used
botox to study the effect of muscles in emotion regulation. Facial Feedback Theory, more
about this later.
Emotion Properties
1. Relatively distinct, but mixed-emotions possible.
2. Subtle differences across subjects
These are two properties! Mixed emotions can also be fear and sad at the same time!
Emotions may follow each other up sequentially. Several studies about why we have
