Week 1: What is an emotion? Adolphs and Feldman Barrett Debate

The fundamental question- William James

what is an emotion?

Ralph Adolphs perspective

functionalist

Feldman Barrett perspective

constructionist

Functionalist perspective

• emotions are brain states that produce a response (evolved)

environmental feature → brain state → pattern of physiological activity and reactivity (response) → appraisal of stimulus

Constructionist perspective

environmental stimuli detection + past experiences from memory → prediction → emotion is constructed

constructionist perspective- what happens if no danger is detected?

emotion is never created- prediction is revised (& reversed) when brain realizes there is no real threat

key principle of functionalist approach

emotions define by what they DO (their function), discrete, and each emotion has ONE functionally described state (objective behavioural criteria)

consensus

reliability, NOT validity

core definition of functionalist approach

emotions are functional states of the brain

functional state

specific state of processing of somatic & environmental information

Criteria for functional states

• objective

• public

• behavioural

• classified by FUNCTION

Barrett- view on brain categories

impose socially agreed-upon function, only true because we say they are true

Coffee Maker Analogy

• Barrett: coffee maker can have many functions- make coffee or prop up books

• Adolphs: functions are arbitrary, based on evolutionary origin

  • coffee maker designed to make coffee

• barrett counters by saying that evolved function assigned by humans is not innate, it is a product of human inference

Functionalist approach- individual differences in emotion

context, behaviours, causal relations

functionalist- human inference

identifies emotions that exist in nature

allostasis

psychological process of achieving stability in the body’s internal milieu by predicting & responding to exteroceptive and interoceptive signals

how does brain infer causes of interoceptive & exteroceptive noise?

predictive coding- makes ad-hoc predictions about the causes and checks them against stimuli, if predictions are wrong → updated

concept

representation of a category of similar events/objects

embodied representation

experience of the world in that moment

emotion learning

patterns learned, words assigned to this cluster of behaviours → becomes child’s concept of the emotion

affect

positive - negative, arousal-sleepiness

constructionist- what makes something anger

ad-hoc anger concept → guides action

• specific collection of motor/sensory/affective/functional features → inferred as anger by similarity

constructionist- role of human inference

• constructs emotions as categories of social reality - rooted in human consensus

consciousness debate

• adophs- no idea

• barrett- emotions can be conscious or unconscious (construction of the emotion is unconscious)

animal emotion debate

• adolphs- YES, homologous circuits shared by humans and mammals

• Barrett- not sure, must stipulate mental inference

animal research- adolphs

argues for ethiological study of simpler animals

Barrett- animal research

studying simple animals could be incomplete insights, but could help give clarity

• using same names for animal emotions as humans gives false confidence

Deficiencies in research

1. Within-category variability is under-studied

2. Context under-appreciated

   • Lab settings remove natural variation

   • Behaviours appear more stereotyped than in nature

3. Scientists own inferences have an effect on results

4. Distinction between affect and emotion is unclear

   • Affect derives from interoception

5. Lack of clarity in meaning of 'emotion'

   • Need common vocabulary