emotion 2

Question 1

what are the effects of emotion on cognition?

an example?

Answer 1

emotional stimuli elicit automatic responses and grab attention

‘preparedness’ - evolved innate fear of phobic stimuli e.g snakes but not modern dangers

Question 2

what did Winkielman find about unconscious emotion and unconsious priming effects?

Answer 2

strong effects of unconscious (16 secs) emotional faces on behaviour IF in a motivational state e.g thirsty

happy subliminal face then poored and drank more of drink than neutral or angry

Question 3

what did Bargh find about priming effects?

Answer 3

temperature priming feelings

e.g warm drink make people feel kinder and cold makes meaner

Question 4

what is meant by priming effects?

Answer 4

unconscious exposure to emotions changing behaviour

Question 5

how is cognitive bias towards emotional stimuli studied and how are these tests used?

Answer 5

cognitive tasks with emotional aspect added to demonstrate influence of emotional stimuli on e.g memory

frequently used in clinical settings

some used as treatments to modify cognitive biases

Question 6

what is attention?

what may it depend on?

Answer 6

a process by which specific stimuli within the external and internal environment are selected for further processing

may depend on situation and mood

Question 7

3 types of tasks to look at attentional bias?

Answer 7

1. detection task - pay attention quickly see it in array
2. visual search task - detect target stimulus in array e.g sad face among happy quick response means negative attentional bias
3. emotional stroop task - RT to negative and positive emotional words

Question 8

what are some of the difficulties in interpreting stroop task?

Answer 8

1. disorder related words may induce internal attention
2. may induce emotional reaction that slows response
3. cognitive avoidance of e.g not looking at injury words
4. carry over effect from previous trials - avoided by single word at a time and following up with neutral word

Question 9

describe the dot probe task to measure attention?

problems?

modifications?

Answer 9

whether attention captured by neutral or pos/neg either side of the dot

engagement or disengagement

put cue in front of one to see how much something captures and holds our attention

Question 10

what is an attentional bias?

anxiety and depression attentional biases?

Answer 10

systematic tendency to attend to a particular type of stimulus over others

underlying process in range of disorders
e.g anxiety - bias for threatening info
depression - sad stimulus bias

Question 11

brain structures underlying attentional biases?

what do amygdala regions lead to?

Answer 11

neuronal response to emotional faces in prefrontal cortex

increased interaction (upregulation of responses) between amygdala and visual cortex when presented emotional stimuli (over neutral)

amygdala lesions abolish bias for emotional words

Question 12

name some factors which determine whether memory is encoded and retrieved?

Answer 12

salience
mood
enviro
threat

Question 13

describe the weapon focus effect as an effect of attention on memory?

Answer 13

unable to recall much else apart from weapon

so attention and memory interact as unable to take in info other than focus

Question 14

role of amygdala in memories recalled?

Answer 14

more activated amygdala is then better recall of memory - more activated when emotional stimulus

Question 15

what does amygdala damage lead to?

Answer 15

reverses memory bias for emtional stimulus more activating than neutral

attend to both the same

Question 16

how can fear memory traces be modified?

Answer 16

every time memory recalled it is reactivated and reconsolidated into LTM

can be modified by blocking reconsolidation by injecting protein synthesis inhibitor or anaesthetics during reconsolidation to prevent being stored again

Question 17

what is a mood-congruent memory?

what is it hypothesised to be a factor of?

Answer 17

selective encoding or retrieval that occurs while the individuals are in a mood state consistent with the affective value of the material

hypothesised to be a factor of maintenance of depression as more depressed so recall more negative events

Question 18

what is an explanation of mood-congruent memories?

Answer 18

emotions stored in semantic networks

activate one node and activation spreads to all related concepts in network

Question 19

what is thought congruity?

Answer 19

content of thoughts are congruent with mood state

Question 20

what are the effects of antidepressants on memories?

Answer 20

decreased recognition of negative emotional expressions

increase positive bias in attention and memory in healthy controls

Question 21

what are the differences of cognitive bias in anxiety and depression?

Answer 21

attentional bias - lots in anxiety and a bit in depression

interpretive bias - lots in anxiety a bit in depression

memory bias - little in anxiety lots in depression

Question 22

describe attentional bias modification for anxiety and depression patients?

Answer 22

trained to attend away from negative stimuli e.g click neutral face and ignore negative effect

can lead to reduction in symptoms

Question 23

describe appraisal theories?

Answer 23

cognitive appraisals start the emotion process
automatically or consciously
primary - motivational relevance e.g pos/neg
secondary - resources to cope with situation
reappraisal - stimulus and coping strategies monitored

Question 24

what is emotional regulation and what are the 5 stages of it?

Answer 24

management and control of emotional states by various processes

1. situation selection - avoidance
2. situation modification - bring a friend
3. attention deployment - focus on positive
4. cognitive change (proactive) - think differently about negative
5. response modulation (reactive) - hiding emotion

Question 25

what happens in the brain during emotional regulation?

Answer 25

distraction or reappraisal engage cognitive regions of brain (prefrontal cortex) and deactivate emotional regions (amygdala)

Question 26

study comparing distraction vs reappraisal as emotional regulation techniques? what is the brain response?

Answer 26

look at pictures whilst engaging in distraction or reappraisal negative emotions not quite as negative when using these techniques amygdala inhibition response during both techniques prefrontal cortex becoming active

Question 27

findings for abnormal emotional regulation in depression?

Answer 27

say whether word seen briefly pos/neg/neu then working memory task amygdala response keeps on increasing even during working memory task when meant to be inhibited by cognitive areas cognitive areas shutting down so negative relationship

Question 28

what is the split in the anterior cingulate during emotional regulation? what is it involved with?

Answer 28

ventral - regulation dorsal - appraisal/expression involved in negative emotional bias as increased response in depression and negative sitmuli overactive in those with depression

Question 29

treatments for depression to change emotional regulation?

Answer 29

1) TMS 2) deep brain stimulation (DBS) of ventral anterior cingulate by inserting electrodes into that area of the brain 3) brain training - activates working-memory/cognitive areas and deactivates emotional regions

Question 30

what do lesions in ventromedial prefrontal cortex lead to?

Answer 30

impairment of emotional expression identification impulsivesness impairment of decision making e.g Phineas Gage

Question 31

describe the Iowa Gambling Task to demonstrate emotional learning in those with lesions and substance abuse?

Answer 31

2 risky decks - win or lose big 2 safer decks - reduced loses lesions to ventromedial prefrontal cortex or those with substance dependence don't show normal learning as pick more risky decks and lose lots of money (lesions group worse)

Question 32

what is the physiological arousal in the Iowa gambling task?

Answer 32

``` increased arousal ('warning signals') when picking from 'risky' decks in controls - known as Somatic Marker hypothesis: reactivating previous emotional response to decision ``` but not in lesions group of emotional brain areas

Question 33

what are the results of conscious knowledge of the Iowa Gamling Task?

Answer 33

people with explicit knowledge of what was going on do better on game physiological arousal higher then better they were on task no correlation between 2 - good awareness in body and listening but others good at figuring things out (2 routes but not both)