1. How Cognitive and Biological Factors Interact in Emotion
By Mr Daniel Hansson

2. Activity 1
I will present you with two pictures, a sound and a name. Please look/listen carefully and write down what you experience

5. Osama Bin Ladin

6. Questions How did you feel looking and listening to these stimuli?
Try to identify six different emotions and write them down
Try to convey these emotions to the people in your group and let them guess your emotion

7. Examples of emotions (Lazarus 1991)
Anger
Anxiety
Fright
Guilt
Shame
Sadness
Envy
Jealousy
Disgust
Happiness
Pride
Relief
Hope
Love
Compassion

8. What is an emotion?
A subjective feeling provoked by real or imagined objects or events

9. Components of emotion Eliciting stimuli Cognitive appraisal
Biological factors (e.g. body arousal, physiological activity)
Behavior associated with the emotion (e.g. smiling, running away, violence)

10. Cognitive appraisal
An evaluation of how a situation will affect one’s personal well being
Is affected by personal experiences and beliefs
Primary appraisal: An evaluation of how a situation might affect our well being
Secondary appraisal: A decision of how to react to the situation
Can be conscious or unconscious

11. Example: Strack et. al. (1988)
Group 1: Put a pen between your teeth Group 2: Put a pen between your lips Rate how funny the following commercial is from 1 to 10

12. Biological factors
Body arousal related to hormonal activity (e.g. adrenaline and oxytocin)
Brain activity (e.g. amygdala, prefrontal cortex)

13. Amygdala
A structure in the brain that is known to register emotional reactions
Initial research was based on rats, modern research on neuroimaging studies of humans
Psychopaths show less activation in the amygdala during emotional processing than others

15. Le Doux (1999)
Suggests that there are two biological pathways of emotions in the brain due to evolution
The short route goes from the sensory thalamus to the amygdala and leads to an instant emotion
The long route passes via the cortex and hippocampus before it results in an emotion

17. Why a short and a long route for emotion?
In cases of danger, the fast pathway saves time but makes mistakes
The long pathway allows for more appropriate responses to situations

18. Arousal
When the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for emergency action

19. Characteristics of arousal
Increased blood pressure
Increased heart rate
Rapid respiration
Dilated pupils
Increased perspiration
Decreased secretion of mucus and saliva,
Erect hairs on skin

20. How do biological and cognitive factors interact in emotion?
Positive emotions produce fewer bodily changes than negative emotions
Body arousal affects the intensity of emotion
Facial characteristics and bodily changes are distinct for different emotions. Heart rate is faster for negative emotions, skin temperature for anger is higher than in fear or sadness. These differences are universal

21. Activity 2
Go back to the six emotions that you identified. Now rank them from highest to lowest based on the level of body arousal
After you are done, rank them from the most positive to the most negative emotion
Finally, rank them from the most intensive to the least intensive emotion
Can you see any relationship between body arousal and intensity or type of emotion?

22. Activity 3
After hearing this presentation, please create your own model on how you think cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion. Make sure that you include the following emotional components: associated behavior, eliciting stimuli, cognitive appraisal, body changes, subjective experience of the emotion

23. Websites to try out
glennrowe.net/BaronCohen/Faces/EyesTest.aspx