week 18

emotions
3 February 2016

18.01 Cognition and Emotion

how emotions may affect cognitive processes

Read pp. 88-92 of your Crane and Hannibal textbook, Section 3.2:
Cognitive level of analysis: Cognition and emotion.
Read pp. 26-34 of the Pamoja Supplementary eText, The Cognitive
Level of Analysis: Section 3. Cognition and Emotion, A. Cognitive
and biological factors and emotion and B. Emotion and memory.

pg. 88-92

remember experiences that involve emotion

3 stages of emotions:
o physiological changes: arousal from autonomic nervous system and
endocrine system
o subjective feeling of emotion (happiness)
o associated behavior: smiling, running away
Lazarus and Folkman: how people appraise and cope with a situation is more
important than emotions
o cognitive appraisal: interpretation
stimulus physiological response (fight or flight) and cognitive appraisal (decision
about what to dom based on previous experience)

Biological factors in emotion

amygdala: small structure in temporal lobe has a critical role in emotinal memories
The Emotional Brain (1999) LeDoux
o short route: thalamus to amygdala
o long route: neocortex and thalamus to control response systems
o amygdad transforms sensory info into emotional signals

o
o

direct and indirect pathways allow flexibility in responses

Cognitive factors in emotion: appraisal

Lazarus (1975) claimed that cognitive appraisal is an important part of peoples

reaction to emotional stress
o interpret and evaluate what is happening to them
Lazarus and Folkman (1984) suggested that an individuals experience of stress can
be moderated by a number of factors, which include appraisal of threat and
appraisal of ones own resources for dealing with stress
o influenced by personal characteristics (motivation, beliefs, environment)
Folkman and Lazarus (1988) found that people use different strategies in stressful
situations
o problem-focused coping, which aimed to change the problematic situation
that causes emotional stress
o emotion-focused coping, where the purpose is to handle the emotions rather
than changing the problematic situation
Speisman et al. (1964) showed participants a film about an initiation ceremony
involving unpleasant genital surgery. The aim of the study was to investigate if
peoples emotional reaction to the unpleasant film could be manipulated. This was
done by showing the film with three different soundtracks. Condition one, the trauma
condition, included a soundtrack which emphasized the pain and mutilation. In the
second condition, the denial condition, the soundtrack showed the participants as

willing and happy. In condition three, the intellectualization condition, the soundtrack
gave the anthropological interpretation of the ceremony. The experiment deliberately
manipulated the participants appraisal of the situation and evaluated the effect of
the type of appraisal on their emotional response. The results showed that
participants reacted more emotionally to the trauma condition
o laboratory study with manipulation of variables, which always raises the
issue of artificiality
o researchers deliberately used deception and put participants in unpleasant
situations
Emotion and a cognitive process: the flashbulb theory

flashbulb memory was suggested by Brown and Kulik (1977). Flashbulb memory is
a special kind of emotional memory, which refers to vivid and detailed memories of
highly emotional events that appear to be recorded in the brain as though with the
help of a cameras flash
may be a special neural mechanism which triggers an emotional arousal because
the event is unexpected or extremely important
emotional events are better remembered than less emotional eventsperhaps
because of the critical role of the amygdala
Neisser (1982) has questioned the idea of flashbulb memories.
o event itself is rehearsed and reconsidered after the event
o governed by a storytelling schema following a specific structure, such as
place, activity, informant, and affect
Neisser and Harsch (1992) investigated peoples memory accuracy of Space Shuttle
Challenger launch 24 hours and 2 years after the incident
o 40 per cent of the participants had distorted memories
o post-event information had influenced
Talarico and Rubin (2003) found that emotional intensity was often associated with
greater memory confidence, but not with accuracy
current attitudes and emotions may influence peoples memories
o past emotional memories are partly reconstructed based on peoples current
appraisal of events
Breckler (1994), who found that peoples current attitudes towards blood donation
impacted their memories about how they felt when they donated blood in the past
Holmberg and Holmes (1994) found that men whose marriages had become less
happy over time tended to recall early interactions in the marriage as being more
negative than they had originally reported
o correlational data, so change is unreliable

CLOA 26-34
3. Cognition and Emotion
A. Cognitive and biological factors and emotion
different emotions = different physiological responses
two-factor theory of emotion
o Schachter and Singers (1962)
adrenaline heightens physiological responses
unethical due to an unpleasant arousal
Marshall and Zimbardo, 1979
lack of ecological validity
Fiske et al., 2004
unable to replicate

o
o

o
o

o
o
o

Mezzacappa et al., 1999

states that the physiological arousal in different emotions is entirely
the same and we label our arousal according to the cognitions we
have available
strength of physiological = intensity of emotion
Appraisal theory of emotion
Lazarus (1982, 1991)
evaluate situation based on significance
primary appraisal: an environmental situation is regarded as being
positive, stressful, or irrelevant to well-being
secondary appraisal: account is taken of the resources that the
individual has available to cope with the situation
re-appraisal
each distinct emotion is elicited by a specific and distinctive pattern of
appraisal.
Smith and Lazarus (1993) argued that there are six appraisal components,
two involving primary appraisal and four involving secondary appraisal
primary = motivational relevance and motivational congruence
anger, guilt, sadness, anxiety
secondary = accountability, problem-focused coping potential,
emotion-focused coping potential, and future expectancy
more a theory of cognition and emotion than of an interaction between
biological and cognitive factors and emotion
Herald and Tomaka (2002)
interaction of cognitive and biological factors in emotion
hman (2000)
presented pictures of spiders or snakes
2 experimental conditions:
durations allowed participants to consciously
recognize
30 milliseconds and neutral stimulus
phobic participants showed identical physiological
responses
appraisal can occur on an unconscious level
Whalen et al. (1998)

B. Emotion and memory

emotion itself affects memory

Levinger and Clark (1961)
o tested Freuds theory that disturbing memories which generate painful
emotions are repressed and may only be recovered through therapy
o retention of associations to emotionally-charged words, such as quarrel,
angry, fear) compared with the retention of associations to neutral words
like cow, tree, window.
longer to respond to emotionally-charged words
Galvanic skin response is a method of measuring how the skin
conducts electricity, which varies with its moisture level. This is a
way of measuring psychological stress or arousal)
Parkin et al (1982)
o replicated Levinger and Clarks study, but this time they added a delay of 7
days
o emotional words were remembered better than neutral words

Flash bulb memories, according to Brown and Kulik (1977), are formed when we
encounter highly emotional information; are maintained through discussion and
rehearsal; are more vivid, long-lasting and accurate than other memories; and
require for their creation a special neural mechanism which stores this information
permanently in a unique memory system
o eighty participants from the US to answer questions regarding ten different
important events
9 public (assassinations) and 10th was personal
o asked what they were doing when the event occurred
o asked how many times they had rehearsed information about each event
o assassination of President Kennedy in 1963 generated the most flash-bulb
memories, with 90% of participants recalling
o difficult to determine the accuracy of these vivid and long-lasting flashbulb
memories
the levels of processing theory (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) could explain why
meaningful events are remembered for longer
Neisser and Harsch (1992)
o interviewed 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster
one day and 2.5 years later
o flashbulb memories are unreliable
Talarico and Rubin (2003)
o On September 12th, 2001, 54 university students recorded their memory of
first hearing about the terrorist attacks of September 11th and also for their
memory of a recent everyday event
o self-ratings of vividness, recollection, and belief in the accuracy of memory
declined only for everyday memories
o Initial emotion ratings also predicted later posttraumatic stress disorder
symptoms
o a flashbulb event reliably enhances memory characteristics such as
vividness and confidence
role of culture in mediating emotion in memory
o Wang and Aydin (2008)
tested this hypothesis and found that Chinese participants had
fewer flashbulb memories of public events than participants from the
USA, UK, Germany or Turkey (cross-cultural)
culture affects recall of emotional memories
overlaps between CLOA and BLOA
o biological correlates to mental processes and behaviour

18.02 Media Portrayals of Memory and Emotions

Identify a song, book or movie that relates to memory or emotions. Given

your understanding of psychology, discuss how the media portrays either
of these. (Discuss = Offer a considered and balanced review that includes
a range of arguments, factors or hypotheses. Opinions or conclusions
should be presented clearly and supported by appropriate evidence.)
In response to Annelijne Brouwer
I almost wrote about the Vow as well. This example can be an example of both
the CLOA and the BLOA because the damage to her brain affects her memory,
but in the end, she is able to be reminded of her strong emotions for her
husband.
A movie which I recently watched was The Longest Ride, a Nicholas Sparks movie which
obviously contained many different emotional states. In the beginning, Luke and Sophia
meet while he is bullriding and after driving home from their first date, they witnessed a car
crash. They save Ira, the old man barely conscious in the car, along with the box of letters in
the passenger seat. Sophie reads the letters to Ira in the hospital, which he had written to his
true love Ruth over the years. Although, some of these memories were just small events,
they were still memorable for Ira because of the strong emotions. This supports the appraisal
theory of emotion as the events were significant for his life. They are an example of primary
appraisal in which an environmental situation is regarded as being positive, stressful, or
irrelevant to well-being. The flashbulb memory theory is also supported from the media of
this movie with the character Luke. He had a traumatic experience riding the bull, Ringo, and
was badly hurt. The memory was definitely vivid, long-lasting and more accurate than other
memories, as he was able to recall the memory easily. When he was able to ride again and
finally sat back on a bull before entering the arena, he had flashbacks of the incident, which
brought back feelings of fear. In the end, he was able to overcome these emotions and rode
Ringo again for 8 seconds.

18.03 Summative ERQ: Social or Cultural Factors and Cognition

formative: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fyBmYrWastOmhoOoHDlW_OfGykKsx0sD2lkeYUx6QA/edit
tested memory strategies and problem solving with the cognitive processes of memory
and working-memory

Level of Analysis

Investigator/s

Date

CLOA

Cole and Scribner (pg. 81)

1974

Description (Aim, Type of study, Participants, Procedures, Findings, Conclusions):

The aim of this correlational cross-cultural experiment was to compare the memories
and recall of words from 4 different topics among participants in the US and Liberia.
Different age groups of Kpelle were asked to recall 20 words from lists of utensils,
clothes, tools, and vegetables, topics that were examined to be relevant to their
everyday life. It was found that students over the age of 10 who had not attended
school did not improve their free-recall performance. At first, remembering 10 items
and only improving by an additional 2 after 15 trials. However, children who attended
school used strategies, such as in the US, which allowed them to remember the words
more rapidly. It was concluded that the illiterate children did not use chunking or
rehearsal, based on categorical similarity of the objects, because they did not present the
words in any particular order. When the procedure changed to present the information
as a cultural narrative, the uneducated children did use chunking and recalled more
information. However, Westernized American students recalled better overall. The
activities used to investigate the cognitive processes may not have been relevant to
the everyday lives of the Kpelle people, supporting the idea that learning memory
strategies, efficient ways to remember information at the encoding stage, are not
universal, meaning they are dependent on schooling. Even though cognitive abilities
are universal, the skills depend on the environment. Results showed that education,
which is both a social and cultural factor impacts cognitive processes. In order to
increase recalling process, the material must be retrieved in a familiar form.

Evaluation
Methodology Considerations

Ethical Considerations

Gender/Cultural
Considerations

The words used in each cultural

study were considered for
relevancy and language. The
word lists must be familiar to the
participants. Cultural and social
factors cannot be separated.
Establishes an unclear causeand-effect relationship between

There were no ethical issues,

as only the participants
memories were being tested.
No deception was used or harm
was caused to the participants,
who gave their informed
consent, could withdraw at
anytime, and were debriefed.

There is a western bias

on research using
memory tests. Kpelle
people of Liberia do not
necessarily have the
same schooling and
memory strategies as in
the US.

social and cultural factors of

education and memory recall.

All private information was also

kept confidential.

Level of Analysis

Investigator/s

Date

CLOA

Imbo and LeFevre

2009

Description (Aim, Type of study, Participants, Procedures, Findings, Conclusions):

The aim of this questionnaire lab experiment was to investigate three different cultures in
Canada and the effects of the working-memory load while solving math problems. Participants
included 40 Fleming-speaking Belgians, 40 English-speaking Chinese, and 40 Chinesespeaking Chinese. The procedure included loading either the central executive or
phonological loop of participants by having them solve addition questions in no-load and
working-memory load conditions. Results showed that the first language Chinese
participants were faster, more accurate, and required less working-memory resources than the
Belgians, who were faster than the Canadians. In conclusion, the Chinese chose less
adaptively from available strategies, yet were more efficient than the students from the other
Canadian cultures in this problem solving. These results were analyzed in terms of the
encoding complex model of understanding information. The explanation of adaptively results
was based on cultural educational differences in the student's history of classes.

Evaluation
Methodology Considerations

Ethical
Considerations

Gender/Cultural Considerations

It is unknown if the participants

were timed while answering these
problems. Also, what if the
questions were not as logical as
these simple addition problems,
such as 58+76=?. The participants
should also have included a range
of ages.

There were no
ethical issues with
this lab experiment,
as all rules were
followed.

There were different instructional

approaches taught whilst in
elementary school, number
language, and there are also
informal cultural norms and
standards for students. All of the
participants also lived in Canada.

cognitive processes are mental operations, such as memory and working-memory.

the schema theory has been used to explain the memory processes in three stages:
encoding, storage and retrieval

As stated by psychologist Jerome Bruner, children of any culture

learn the basics of culture through schooling and daily interaction with
members of the culture in which they live. Formal schooling is one of
the most important ways in which culture is transmitted. In 1974, Cole
and Scribner investigated the recall of the Kpelle people and compared
the results with the free recall of Americans. Similarly, in 2009, Imbo

and LeFevre investigated the effects of the working-memory load of

three different cultural groups while solving math problems.
The results of the experiment showed that cultural factors, such as
education in this case, do impact cognitive processes, relating to
memory.
This study supports the idea that learning memory strategies are
efficient ways to remember information at the encoding stage of the
schema theory, but are not universally used, meaning they are
dependent on formal schooling, as predicted by Bruner. The
environment affects the skills, rather than the cognitive abilities. In
order to increase recalling processes, the material must be retrieved in
a familiar form.
The procedure included loading either the central executive or
phonological loop of participants by having them solve addition
questions in no-load and working-memory load conditions. They were
asked to estimate answers to simple addition problems, such as
54+78=?
In conclusion, the Chinese chose less adaptively from the available
strategies, yet were more efficient in problem solving than the other
students of the Canadian cultures. These findings were analyzed in
terms of the encoding complex model of understanding information.
the explanation of adaptively results was based on not social, but
cultural educational differences
When considering the culture, there were different instructional
approaches used to teach whilst in elementary school and the numbers
were adjusted to be relevant in the language of the participants to
make the questions understandable. In addition, rather than the formal
education of the three different culture groups, there are informal
cultural norms and standards of all students that were not accounted
for in this experiment.
As proven by the studies of Cole and Scribner (1974) and Imbo and
LeFevre (2009), cultural factors do have an impact on the cognitive
process of memory and working-memory to some extent, based on the
differences of education
As social and cultural factors could not be separate in this study, an
unclear cause-and-effect relationship was established between the
factors of education and memory recall

Other issues may also be faced, such as the insight of language

and culture being examined prior to the experiment and the western
bias on many memory tests.
Biological abnormalities will also play a role in combination with the cultural and social factors,
which can be measured using case studies with technology, such as MRIs.

According to the findings of the two studies, culture can

drastically affect memory and working-memory through recall using
different learning strategies and problem solving.
Cognitive processes are the mental operations, such as memory. According to
psychologist Jerome Bruner, cultural factors of schooling and daily interaction impact
a person drastically. Cole and Scriber (1974) and Imbo and LeFevre (2009) are two
studies which support this idea of cultural factors affecting one cognitive process, of
memory, to a large extent.
In 1974, Cole and Scribner conduct a cross-cultural experiment between American
students and the Kpelle people of rural Liberia. After close observation the Kpelle
group, the researchers decided upon four lists of 20 words each of the topics of
clothes, utensils, foods, and tools, which were relevant to the everyday lives of the
participants. After hearing the list of words, the participants were asked to recall as
many words as possible. The results were compared to the recall of American
students. On average, the illiterate Kpelle people were able to recall ten words and
after 15 trials, they only improved by one or two additional words. However, the
literate Kpelle participants were able to increase their free-recall performance, as
they were educated similarly to American students and used categorical similarity to
better remember the lists of words. As the words were not presented in any particular
order, it seems as if they had not used learning strategies. The schema theory
explains the memory process in the three stages of encoding, storage, and retrieval.
In this study, the American participants showed proof of using strategies, such as
chunking or rehearsal, at the encoding stage, but the Kpelle people seemed not to
have been taught these methods. This goes to show that these memory processes
are impacted largely by the environment and schooling of the different cultures.
However, when the recall procedure was adjusted to be presented as a cultural
narrative, the Kpelle students did seem to use chunking in order to remember the
details because they had been encultured to spread narratives through word of
mouth. This study proves that to increase the recall process, the format in which the
material is delivered must be relevant to the everyday life and in a familiar format.
Of course, there are many evaluations to point out. Firstly, there was an obvious
western bias, as the lists were not something the rural Liberians needed to memorize
in their everyday lives. It was critical that their language and behavior was observed
prior to the experiment to come up with a list of words and a narrative that would be
most relevant and thus giving the most accurate results of the effect of cultural
factors on memory recall. Also, because two entirely different groups are being
compared, there is no way to separate the social and cultural factors, suggesting only
a cause-and-effect relationship between the learning strategies and cognitive process
of memory.
In 2009, Imbo and Lefevre conducted a questionnaire laboratory experiment between
different social groups in Canada. Participants included 40 Chinese-speaking Chinese,
40 English-Speaking Chineses, and 40 Flemish-speaking Belgians. They were asked to
answer basic math problems, such as 55+77=?, which should the use of either the

central executive or phonological loop to solve the no-load or working-load memory

addition problem. The results showed the Chinese-speaking Chinese student were the
fastest and most accurate test takers, followed by the Flemish-speaking Belgians,
and finally the English-speaking Chinese. This is due to the invariability of problemsolving skills used by this group of students. They seemed to be the least adaptive
compared to the other students, solving all the problems with a similar method.
Although this study did have more of a clear separation between social and cultural
factors because they were different groups of people living within the same country,
it is still difficult to state a specific cause-and-effect relationship between the
cognitive process of the working memory and the problem-solving skills learned from
the formal education and social norms. It is possible that the Chinese-speaking
Chinese participants had the most academic pressure, and thus were the most
inclined to do the best in the most efficient manner. Another methodological and
cultural consideration was that the numbers and instructions were written in the
corresponding language in order to make the questions understandable for the
participants. Also, the background of the participants, including their ages and past
instructional approaches are not available to the researchers. All groups could have
been impacted differently from their formal elementary school education.
Both studies followed all rules of ethics. Participants, whose identities were kept
confidential, were debriefed after giving their informed consent and aware that they
were able to withdraw at any time during the study. They were protected physical
and mentally, as only their memories were being tested and there was no deception.
These studies showed the enculturation of the effects of both informal and formal
schooling, which is both a social and cultural factor. The 1974 study of Cole and
Scriber, which investigated memory recall between cultural groups, and the 2009
study of Imbo and Lefevre, which investigated the working-memory related to solving
problems between different cultural groups, both support the idea that cultural
factors largely impact cognitive processes. However, biological factors may also have
an impact on the results. If a case study with a participant with brain damage were to
be observed while recalling the words in the Kpelle language or answering simple
mathematical addition equations, the results would be affected to a certain extent.
As the results were analyzed using the complex model of understanding, it is also
possible to correlate the biological factors with memory using technology, such as
fMRIs, while observing the participants while completing the tasks asked of them.

18.04 Emotions Collaboration Part 1

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lGscYMieo97DSsTvMQ2lIvz8hqPP8bAsKmSqxD
Hxj1I/edit?ts=56b6b092

18.05 TOK Connection

Access your Course Companion eText and read TOK and ways of
knowing: emotions on p. 92.
Reflect on the issues raised by the questions especially Question 3.
(There is no need to discuss any of these questions with your group, just
reflect on them yourself.)

mirror neurons may explain empathy