Emotion, Learning, and
Memory
Continued
NO CLASS APRIL 18
"Gender Differences" Omitted
See Revised Syllabus on
Emotions Web Page
State Dependent Memory and
Mood Congruent Learning
State-Dependent Memory: How mood helps/hurts
retrieval of things that are already there.
Based on "associative networks"
Mood-Congruent Learning: How mood affects they
way in which new information is brought into memory to
begin with.
Bower's "Burglar/Realtor" study, as empirical metaphor.
Number of Happy/Sad Story Incidents Recalled by
Ss Who Read Story in Happy/Sad Mood
8
7.5
7
Happy
Sad
6.5
6
5.5
5
Happy Scene
Sad Scene
Emotion Intensity Rating Study
SKIP
Purpose:
To show that new events that trigger more intense emotions are better
learned.
Procedure:
1. Ss given emotion prompts:
"lost child", "happy days", "bad bets", "mid term next week"
2. Ss evoke a personal memory associated with each prompt
3. Ss rate the intensity of evoked memory, per prompt
4. Ss get surprise memory test for all prompts
Probability of Recalling a Prompt due to
Strength of Emotion Generated by the Memory
Associated to the Prompt SKIP
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Intensity Rating
8
9
10
Procedure for Emotional Intensity
and Learning Study: Session 1 SKIP
a. Subjects are hypnotized
b. Ss trained to evoke three different levels of either
happy, sad, or angry
Procedure for Emotional Intensity and
Learning Study: Session 2 SKIP
a. Ss access mood they were trained to evoke
b. Imagine self in 4 happy scenes, 4 sad scenes, 4 angry
scenes narrated to Ss by the experimenter
1. At emotion level 1 (lowest)
2. At emotion level 2 ( middle)
3. At emotion level 3 (highest)
c. Shift to neutral mood
d. Remove from hypnotic trance
e. Filler task for 5 minutes
f. Free recall of gist of episodes
Average free-recall of happy, angry, sad
episodes by happy, angry, sad subjects
Correct Recall
SKIP
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
Happy
Angry
Sad
Happy Episode Angry Episode
Sad Episode
Correct Recall
Average Free-Recall For Episodes SKIP
Under Low, Medium, Or High Intensity Emotion
Happy
Angry
Sad
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
Low Intensity
Med. Intensity High Intensity
Emotional Intelligence and
Emotions as Information
Class 14
Can Understanding Own and Others'
Emotions Affect One's Quality of Life?
a. Emotions and health
1. Sadness  lack of motivation
2. Happiness  undue risk taking
b. Emotions and development
1. Attending to baby’s emotions
2. Knowing when to ignore baby’s emotions
3. Recognizing anger as a call for bonding
Understanding Own Emotions and
Quality of Life (continued)
c. Physiology and emotion: Gut brain
d. Culture and emotion: Culture’s effect on emotions
e. Emotions and cognition
1. Mood can affect learning and memory
2. Mood can affect how you see others
3. Mood can affect creativity, problem solving
4. Mood can affect self acceptance
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Ability to recognize others’ emotions
Ability to recognize one’s own emotions
Ability to appropriately express own emotions
Ability to manage one’s own emotions
Ability to manage other’s emotions
Salovey and Meyer Definition:
The ability to monitor one’s own and other’s feelings and
emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this
information to guide one’s thinking and actions.
What Professions/Occupations
Benefit from Emotional Intelligence?
Political leaders
Clergy
Writers
Military
Actors
Scientists
Therapists
Physicians
Salespersons
Lawyers
Managers
Animal trainers
Teachers
Law Enforcement
Coaches
Who doesn't????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywDZKfZ-iZA
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air,
we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender,
Historic Bias Against Emotions
Publilius Syrus: “Rule feelings lest they rule you”
Young: Emotions = “acute disturbances of the individual as
a whole”
Psych Texts: Emotions as “a complete loss of cerebral control’
containing no “trace of conscious purpose”.
Woodworth: IQ should contain tests showing ability TO
NOT be afraid, angry, grieved, curious about things that
arouse emotions in kids.
MSCEIT
Test of Emotional Intelligence
Is NOT strongly related to IQ
Is a reliable measure -- Time 1 scores resemble Time 2 scores
Predicts:
Helping
Deviancy
Academic performance
Verbal Items From MSCEIT
I.
MATCHING MOODS WITH EVENTS/TASKS
What mood(s) might be helpful to feel when following a very
complicated cooking recipe?
a. Tension b. Sorry c. Neutral mood
II.
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS’ EMOTIONS
Marjorie felt more and more ashamed, and began to feel
worthless. She then felt:
a. Overwhelmed b. Depressed c. ashamed d. Self-conscious
III.
TRANSLATING FROM SENSORY TO EMOTIONAL DOMAINS
Imagine you are feeling cold, slow, and sharp. This is like?
a. Challenged
b. Isolated
c. Surprised
READING THE MIND IN THE EYES TEST
http://glennrowe.net/baroncohen/faces/eyestest.aspx
Simon Baron-Cohen: The Essential
Difference: Men, Women, and the Extreme
Male Brain
Who is Simon Baron-Cohen's brother?
Central Domains of Emotional Intelligence
1. Expressing and Understanding own emotions
2. Understanding others' emotions
3. Regulating own emotions
Emotionally-Intelligent Communication:
Referential Activity (RA)
RA is language that helps convey emotions and emotional
experiences
Transfers information from the emotional/sensory realm to the
abstract/linguistic realm.
* Imagistic: Boats anchored in the open bay rocked and
strained like troubled men tossing through a restless sleep.
* Concrete: Her face was set, eyes focused on the lead runner,
deep lines above knit brows, cheek bones sharp under taut skin.
* Sensory: Her voice, soft and calm, was like a cool morning
breeze that feathered the back of his neck.
Examples of High RA vs. Low RA
Low RA: I went to the cafeteria. The salsa was a gustatory
success. The burritos, however, were unpalatable, odious,
distasteful.
High RA: I Went to the cafeteria—you could smell the salsa
before you got there, tangy oniony smell that tickles the back of
your nose and makes your eyes blink. But the burritos were like
white, beached whales; beans and rice oozing out the side like
spilled guts and a smell like last week’s laundry.
* High RA leads to better therapy outcomes.
* High RA speech in therapy precedes breakthroughs
CARAT Test
Purpose of Test: To gauge sensitivity to others’ non-verbal
emotions.
Format:
1. Subject A watches slides: scenic, grotesque, sexual, sad.
2. Subject B watches Subject A’s face as Subject A views slides.
3. Test: How well can Subject B guess the kind of slide Subject
A is viewing, based only on Subject A’s facial expressions.
CARAT test shows:
1. Artists better than scientists
2. Women better than men
Meta-Experience of Mood
Defined: Knowing not only what mood you are in, but what to
expect of that mood, how to use that mood, and how to manage
that mood.
Why valuable to know these things?
a. Knowing time course of moods can stop them from
being too influential (i.e., panic attack)
b. Can use tactics to prolong positive moods
c. Can learn when and how to listen to own emotional signals
Gut Feelings in the Desert:
Antoine De Saint Exupery and the Dragon Fly
I shaved carefully in a cracked mirror. From time to time I
went to the door and looked at the naked sand. … I was
thoughtful. … For the moment everything was all right. But
I heard something sizzling. It was a dragonfly knocking
against the lamp. Why it was I cannot say, but I felt a
twinge in my heart.
I went outdoors and looked round. The air was pure. …
Over the desert reigned a vast silence as of a house in
order. But here were a green butterfly and two dragonflies
knocking against my lamp. Again I felt a dull ache which
might as easily have been joy as fear, but came up from the
depths of me.
Saint Exupery in the Desert, continued
Something was calling to me from a great distance. Was it
instinct?
Once again I went out. The wind had died down
completely. The air was still cool. But I had received a
warning. I guessed, I believed I could guess, what I was
expecting.
I climbed a dune and sat down face to the east. If I was
right, the thing would not be long in coming. What were
they after here, those dragonflies, hundreds of miles from
their oases inland?
Saint Exupery in the Desert
Wreckage thrown up upon the beach bears witness to a
storm at sea. Even so did these insects declare to me that
a sand storm was on the way, a storm out of the east that
had blown them out of their oases.
Solemnly, for it was fraught with danger, the east wind
rose. … But that was not what excited. What filled me
with a barbaric joy was …that I had been able to read the
anger of the desert in the beating wings of a dragonfly.
St. Exupery, A. (1939). Wind, sand, and stars.
Affect as Information (G. Clore, et al.)
Emotions are persuasive messages from the self to
the self.
Has something important occurred?
Is an event, object, or person good or bad?
How urgent is the need to respond, react?
Limits to Affect as Information
People use emotions as information when:
1. Ambiguous rather than clearly defined events
2. When responses aren’t overly scripted or rehearsed
3. When moderate (rather than little or intense) thought is
required
4. When feelings are attributed to thing being judged
Does Self Esteem Influence Use of
Emotions as Information? (Harber, 2005)
Challenge of using emotions as information
What it the temp. today?
Thermometer
Are Toyota Camry’s safe cars?
Consumers’ Reports
Should I get into this elevator with Emotions, gut
this weird looking guy inside it?
The Self as Credible Persuader
Attributes of Credible
Elements of High Self
Persuader (Hovland, 1954) Esteem (Baumeister, 1998)
Moral
Moral
Intelligent
Intelligent
Attractive
Attractive
Stable
Stable
Likeable
Likeable
Competent
Competent
Clues that Self Esteem is Linked to
Using Emotion as Information
1. Self esteem is positively related to emotional intelligence
2. Self esteem is negatively related to emotional ambivalence
3. Self esteem is negatively related to self doubt
4. Self esteem is positively related to autonomy,
resistance to outside pressures.
Testing Whether Self-Esteem Determines
use of Emotions as Information, Study 1
Subjects (60 females) listen to baby cries, of varying
intensities.
Subjects rate each cry for distress conveyed
Subjects rate how upset the cries made them feel
Subjects complete self-esteem measure
Effect of Own Upset on Cry Rating,
as a Function of Self Esteem
6
5.8
Cry Rating
5.6
High Esteem
Med. Esteem
Low Esteem
5.4
5.2
5
4.8
4.6
Mild Upset Mod. Upset Extreme
Upset
Study 2: Replication of Study 1, With Self
Esteem Measured Before Experiment
SKIP
Subjects (57 females) complete self esteem measure 3- 6
weeks before experiment
Listen to baby cries, of varying intensities.
Subjects rate each cry for distress conveyed
Subjects rate how upset the cries made them feel
Effect of Own Upset on Cry Rating, as a
Function of Self Esteem, Study 2 SKIP
6
5.8
Cry Rating
5.6
High Esteem
Med. Esteem
Low Esteem
5.4
5.2
5
4.8
4.6
Mild Upset Mod. Upset Extreme
Upset
Study 3: Manipulated Self Worth and
Use of Emotions as Information SKIP
Subjects assigned to one of three self-worth conditions
1. Boosted self worth
2. Unchanged self worth
3. Depressed self worth
Self worth manipulated by imaging task
Subjects then hear and rate baby cries, report own upset.
Prediction? Boosted self worth will use emotions most
Depressed self worth will use emotions least
Results Experiment 3: SKIP
Correlation Between Upset and Cry Ratings
as a Function of Self Worth Condition
Correl. own upset to judgment of
baby’s distress
Self Worth Boosted
.63 *
Self Worth Unchanged
.39
Self Worth Depressed
-.15
* p < .05
Self Esteem Effects Use of Emotions
as Information. So What?
Why should we care if self esteem affects use of
emotions as information?
Important life choices:
Who you date, marry
What career path you chose
Where you live
Financial investments
Blow up the world--the
The Emotionally Intelligent Lt. Colonel
Stanislav Petrov
1983: Soviet early-warning alarms-incoming US nuclear missile.
Petrov decides: is warning real or error?
"For 15 seconds in a state of shock"
Petrov decides reports are false--doesn't announce alarm to high
command.
"I had a funny feeling in my gut: I didn't want to make a mistake. I
made a decision and that was it."
CIA Analyst: "Probably the most dangerous incident of 1980s."
Gift of Fear (De Becker)
Intuition:
* Emotion is always in response to something
* Emotion always has your best interest at heart
Fear
Doubt
Humor
Anxiety
Hunches
Wonder
Apprehension
Nagging feelings
Curiosity
Suspicion
Persistent thoughts
Hesitation
The Costs of Ignoring One’s Own
Emotions (Gavin De Becker, The Gift of Fear)
A woman is waiting for an elevator, and when the doors open she
sees a man inside who causes her apprehension. Since she is not
usually afraid, it may be the late hour, his size, the way he looks at
her, the rate of attacks in the neighborhood, an article she read a year
ago—it doesn’t matter why. The point is, she gets a feeling of fear.
How does she respond to this survival signal?
She suppresses it, telling herself: “I’m not going to live like that; I’m
not going to insult this guy by letting the door close on his face.”
When the fear doesn’t go away, she tells herself not to be so silly, and
gets into the elevator.
Now, which is sillier: waiting for the next elevator or getting into a
soundproof steel chamber with a stranger she is afraid of?
De Becker: Gift of Fear
Kelly's travail:
What signal does she FAIL to attend to? Why?
What signal does she finally attend to? Why?
Why do people discard danger signals?
Dilemma: external cues do not justify feeling.
Social desirability, politeness norms
Dependence on experts
What might determine who listens to own emotions?
De Becker meets St. Exupery:
a. How do emotions and cognition interact?
b. Which informs which? In what order?
MIDTERM REVIEW
Format:
Study tips:
Multiple choice
(about 30)
Short answer
(about 20)
Extra credit ques
(about 4)
Review PowerPoint slides
Review main points in readings
Test is NOT nit-picky, but not cake. STUDY!
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Darwin considered emotions to be VESTIGIAL. Evidence
in support of this is:
A. ___ People communicate with emotions
B. ___ Damage to emotions centers harms judgment.
C. ___ Emotions are most evident in primitive cultures.
X
D. ___ Use of emotive hand gestures when on the phone.
E. ___ None of the above
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Removal of a monkey's limbic system leads to:
A. ___ Instant death
B. ___ Extreme caution and wariness
X Eating dangerous and disgusting objects
C. ___
D. ___ Clinging to a terrycloth mother
E. ___ All of the above
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
In order to understand the role of emotions, MacLean
studied lizards. Why?
Lizards show what behaviors are "left" when emotional
skills are removed. That way, he could see what
contributions emotions make.
.
How does self esteem effect use of emotions as
information?
People with more self esteem see their emotions as
"making sense", and therefore are more likely to listen to
their emotions than people with low self-esteem.