1. 3.2 Cognitive Level of Analysis Cognition and Emotion

2. Why do we clearly forget some events and forget others?

3. 3 Components of Emotions
Physiological Changes
Not conscious, arousal of autonomous and endocrine systems
Person’s subjective feeling of an emotion
Ex. happiness
Associated behaviour
Smiling
Running away

4. Emotions as a Guide Emotions and how we cope
Cognitive appraisal: interpretation, what to do based on past experience
Fight or Flight
Prepares individual to confront or avoid danger

5. Biological Factors in Emotion
Amygdala
Critical to brain’s emotional circuit
Emotional memories
Adrenaline
Released when strong emotions evoked.

6. Le Doux’s Model of Biological Pathways
Emotional Brain (1999)
Short Route
Directly from Thalamus to Amygdala
Long Route
From Thalamus to Sensory Cortex and Hippocampus to Amygdala
What is the advantage to having both a long and short route?

7. Cognitive Factors in Emotion: Appraisal
How will this situation impact my well being?
Positive and negative: Benefit vs. Risk
Factors that Moderate Stress
Appraisal of threat
Appraisal of one’s resources to deal with threat
Motivation
Beliefs about self and world
Environmental variables
Nature of the danger, social networks

8. Problem-focused Coping Emotion-focused coping
Aimed at changing the situation
Emotion-focused coping
Handle emotions instead of situation
Escape
Self-control
Social support
Positive reappraisal of situation

9. Appraisal and emotional arousal
Speisman et al. (1964)
Film about genital surgery
What happened?
What are the implications?

10. Emotion and a cognitive process The Flashbulb Theory
Brown and Kulik (1977) VS. Neisser (1982)
Flashbulb memories
Compare and contrast the two view points.
What have studies shown about the accuracy of emotional memories?
Talarico and Rubin (2003) pg. 91

11. Results: Inaccuracy of emotional memories is common
Emotional intensity
Greater memory confidence
NOT accuracy
Why?
Post event information
Current attitudes and emotions my influence
Past emotional memories are reconstructed
Based on current appraisal of events

12. Breckler (1994) Holmberg and Holmes (1994) Memories of blood donation
Memories of marriage