Measuring Emotion: Behavior,
Feeling, and Physiology
Group 4
Alicia Iafonaro
Anthony Correa
Baoyu Wang
Isaac Del Rio
What is emotional priming? What did
Brown show?
• Emotional Priming: Associations, representations, and
actions that are linked to the motivational system,
which elicits a defensive reflex in reaction to an
aversive stimulus, or unpleasant state.
• Brown et al. compared reflex responses to startle
probes presented to rats during neural or shockconditioned stimuli at extinction. Results showed that
animals did react more forcefully when the startle
stimuli were presented during fear-conditioned signals.
What is significant about the blink
response?
• The blink response occurs to
protect the eyes and other
particular organs from
potential harm and danger.
• In humans the blink response
is the most reliable component
of the behavioral cascade that
constitutes the startle reflex.
• The magnitude of the blink can
be measured by monitoring
the orbicularis oculi muscle.
When and why is the blink response
potentiated?
• In humans the blink response
is potentiated following
simple shock exposure
(viewing unpleasant pictures)
or as a function of learned
associations activating the
defense motivational system.
• It’s inhibited when viewing
pleasant pictures.
• The reflex is primed when
the defensive motivational
system is active.
Relate this back to the motivation
theory (or hypothesis).
• Since Hebb (1949) defined motivation as
factors that determined direction and rigor of
behavior depending on the sense of needs
states and salience of goal stimuli the
prompted behavior increases or wanes in
intensity and effort of correlated response.
The greater the shock stimuli the heightened
sense of corresponding response.
Discuss Figure 11.9
• Illustrates a significant linear
trend is reliably observed over
judged picture valence, with
the blink responses potentiated
when viewing unpleasant
pictures and inhibited when
viewing pleasant ones,
compared to neutral picture
processing.
Explain what and why a cascade of
defense response events happen.
• The defense cascade is a series of different
response events that vary in levels as
activation increases involving sweat glands,
startle reflex and heart rate. The Defense
Cascade model proposes 3 distinct defensive
phases that occur:
• Pre-encounter
• Post-encounter (freezing)
• Circa-strike (Fight or Flight)
Is all emotion about defense? What emotions
are not focused here? Is the theory challenged
by not considering other emotions?
• The article focuses on fear/phobia emotions
and the startle reflex. However, not all
emotions can be explained be this fight/flight
model such as excitement and anxiety. More
importantly, the theory would not uphold to
individuals suffering from severe depression
or sociopathy.
Illustration of Figure 11.10
A three-stage continuum of defensive
responding
A cascade of different response events,
changing in different ways and at
different levels, as activation increases.
1. The degree of potentiation increases
with greater activation.
2. Only at the highest activation level,
just before action, does the vagus
release the heart to accelerate.
3. Sweat glands’ activity start to
increase at the first stage.
Explain the different heart rate change
between phobic subjects and normal
subjects during the experiment.
Summary of the Chapter
The Motivational Organization of
Emotion: Evolutionary Perspective
Primitive
action
Emotions are avatars
of primitive actions.
:)
Emotions
Valence
Emotional responses
are founded on
activation in two basic
motive systems.
Survival needs: move
toward positive stimuli and
away from negative events
Motive System
Appetitive
Activation
Emotional Priming
Arousal
Overt acts
Emotional
language
Emotions are defined as
activation in a motive
system and are indexed
by the consequent
actions.
Physiologi
cal
reactions
Startle
Reflex
Dimensions for measurement
Aversive/def
ensive