1. CLOA: Cognition and Emotion

2. Emotions Consist of three stages – Physiological changes (e.g. fight or flight response) – Subjective feeling toward emotions (by individual) – Associated behaviour (e.g. smiling) Psychologists have suggested that emotion itself is not important but rather how the situation is appraised and how we cope with it – Appraisal is just the interpretation A dangerous event will result in a physiological change, fight or flight response, and a cognitive appraisal of arousal (the decision of which to do)

3. Biological Factors in Emotion Amygdala (in the temporal lobe) is linked to emotions and plays a critical role in emotional memories LeDoux describes two biological pathways of emotions to the brain: – Short route: thalamus to amygdala – Long route: thalamus, neocortex, hippocampus to amygdala Both result in an emotional response Amygdala receives input from sensory processing before projecting these to control response systems (the connections between the structures allow the information to become a signal and a response)

4. Sensory Thalamus Amygdala Emotional Stimuli Emotional Response Neocortex Hippocampus Short Route Long Route

5. Biological Pathways to Emotion Initially, the stimulus sends information to the thalamus which sends it to the amygdala in order to prepare the body for action At the same time, it sends it to the neocortex and the hippocampus for closer inspection – The APPRAISAL (the outcome) is sent to the amygdala in order to respond Most of the processes happen unconsciously

6. The Short and Long Routes The two different routes provides flexibility in responses The short route is faster and can be important in matters of life and death The long route is slower but allows a more thorough evaluation to avoid inappropriate responses

7. Cognitive Factors in Emotion Appraisals are evaluations of the situation that impacts one’s well being Positive emotions result from the appraisal assessing a potential benefit Negative emotions result from the appraisal assessing a potential risk Lazarus (1975) claimed cognitive appraisal is important to reacting to stress and that stress experiences aren’t only physiological People actively interpret and evaluate what happens

8. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) Suggested that experiences of stress can be moderated by a number of factors – Such as appraisal of threat and appraisal of own resources Influenced by personal characteristics (e.g. motivation)

9. Folkman and Lazarus (1988) People use different strategies in stressful situations such as: Problem-focused coping: aim to change the problematic situation causing stress Emotion-focused coping: aim to handle the emotions rather than changing the problem

10. Speisman et al. (1964) Showed Ps a film of an initiation ceremony with genitalia surgery (laboratory study (lack of ev/control) ethical-deceive) AIM: investigate if people’s emotional reaction could be manipulated To do so, showed the film with 3 different soundtracks; trauma (painful), denial (willing) and intellectualization (anthropological interpretation) Manipulated the Ps’ appraisal and evaluated the type of appraisal on emotion response More emotional to trauma Not the event itself, but the interpretation (appraisal) which elicits stress (supports Lazarus’ theory)

11. Flashbulb Memory – Brown and Kulik (1977) A kind of emotional memory which refers to vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional event AIM: investigate whether dramatic or personally significant events can cause flashbulb memories Asked 40 white and 40 black Americans where they were, what they did and how they felt when they learned of the assassination or attempted assassination of famous figures such as JFK and Martin Luther King Also asked to remember a flashbulb memory of a personal event 73/80 remembered a death of a close relative Flashbulb memories are more likely to occur for unexpected and personally relevant shocking events Suggested there is a neural mechanism which triggers emotional arousal because it is unexpected and important; better remembered if emotional (perhaps due to the role of amygdala)

12. Brown and Kulik (1977) Strengths Provides evidence to support theory of flashbulb memories Limitations Data collected through questionnaires, may be inaccurate Dramatic events can be more rehearsed than usual making them better remembered not necessarily a flashbulb memory Ethics Bringing up personal events may cause psychological harm

13. Opposing Flashbulb Memories – Neisser (1982) Questioned that people may not know an event is important until after it has occurred Suggests the memory is vivid because it is rehearsed and reconsidered afterwards – Suggests that they are narrative conventions A story telling schema with the following structure: – Place (where…) – Activity (what...) – Informant (who...) – Affect (how...)

14. Neisser and Harsch (1992) 7 astronauts died in the Space Shuttle Challenger Investigated people’s memory accuracy of the incident 24 hours later and then 2 years later Ps were very confident their memory was correct 40% had distorted memories as post-event information had influenced their memory Concluded that inaccuracy of emotional memories are common Talarico and Rubin (2003) found emotional intensity was linked with higher confidence but not accuracy

15. Suggesting… That past emotional memories are partly reconstructed by our current appraisal of them Breckler (1994): current attitudes towards blood donation impact how they felt when they donated it in the past Holmberg and Holmes (1994): men whose marriages became less happy over time recalled the earlier stages as being more negative than originally reported Data was correlational (the change in appraisal may not have caused the change in memory of emotions)