Chapter 10 Emotional Influences on Learning and Memory

Modified: 2024-11-19 8:40 PM CST

Behavioral Processes

• What is emotion?
  • Cluster consisting of physiological responses, overt behaviors, and conscious feelings produced to an affecting situation.
    • Examples (flashbulb memories, see more below):
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Kennedy Assassination
      • 9/11
      • Boston Marathons Bombing
      • Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
      • Personal memories
        • Winning Nobel Prize
        • Bad traffic accident
        • Admitted to Harvard
  • Ekman's Universal emotions
    • People all over the world recognize the same emotional faces
    • Ekman's faces:
      • Look at the link above to see faces of (scroll down a little):
        • Anger
        • Contempt
        • Disgust
        • Enjoyment
        • Fear
        • Sadness
        • Surprise
      • You might try duplicating those in a mirror
  • List of human emotions
    • Plutchik:
      • Fear
      • Anger
      • Sadness
      • Joy
      • Disgust
      • Surprise
      • Trust
      • Anticipation

  

  Facial Emotions (from: Le Mau, T., Hoemann, K., Lyons, S.H. et al. Professional actors demonstrate variability, not stereotypical expressions, when portraying emotional states in photographs. Nat Commun 12, 5037 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25352-6)

  

  Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions (above)

• Fear (APA definition):
  • n. a basic, intense emotion aroused by the detection of imminent threat, involving an immediate alarm reaction that mobilizes the organism by triggering a set of physiological changes. These include rapid heartbeat, redirection of blood flow away from the periphery toward the gut, tensing of the muscles, and a general mobilization of the organism to take action (see fear response; fight-or-flight response). Fear differs from anxiety in that the former is considered an appropriate short-term response to a present, clearly identifiable threat, whereas the latter is a future-oriented, long-term response focused on a diffuse threat. Some theorists characterize this distinction more particularly, proposing that fear is experienced when avoiding or escaping an aversive stimuli and that anxiety is experienced when entering a potentially dangerous situation (e.g., an animal foraging in a field where there might be a predator). Whatever their precise differences in meaning, however, the terms are often used interchangeably in common parlance.
• Advertising uses emotion successfully
  • Buy a particular car and people will like you more
  • Drink an expensive whiskey and others will think you sophisticated
  • Emotion raising ads
    • St. Judes ad
    • ASPCA ad
  • Did you feel emotional?
• Arousal (Flight or Flight response)
  • complex physiological reactions that take place when trying to adapt to demands of external events
  • Videos:
    • Ermey as psychiatrist
      • Don't worry, he does not work at the TAMUT Counseling Center
    • Ermey as Drill Instructor in Full Metal Jacket (X-rated language! Do not watch is you do not wish to hear bad language.) (Not on test.)
  • Definition of stressor:
    • events that threaten or challenge an individual (or, they produce stress)
  • Definition of resilience:
    • ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
  • Signs of Stress (many of these can come from other issues such as illness)
    • irritability
    • pounding heart
    • dry mouth
    • impulsiveness
    • urges to run, cry, and hide
    • inability to concentrate
    • tics
    • migraines
    • feelings of unreality
    • loss of "spark"
    • easily startled
    • teeth grinding (at night)
    • trouble sleeping
    • frequent urination
    • diarrhea
    • stomach upset
    • missed menstruation
    • neck or back pain
    • changes in food intake
    • change is smoking amount
    • change in alcohol use
    • nightmares
    • accident proneness
    • hives
    • Any of these may indicate that you are under stress
  • Stress hormones are released:
    • Epinephrine (Adrenaline)
    • Cortisol
• The CUSS
  • Renner, M. J., & Mackin, R. S. (2000). A life stress instrument for classroom use (pp. 11-12). In M. E. Ware, & D. E. Johnson (eds.), Handbook of demonstrations and activities in the teaching of psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
    • Take the College Undergraduate Stress Scale
• The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe)
  • Compare it to the CUSS
  • Notice how the Social Readjustment Rating Scale is focused more on adult stress
  • You should take both. I do not want to know your scores. But, ask yourself, did you get the score you expected?
• Theories of Emotions
  • James-Lange
    • James, "I see the bear, run, and then am afraid."
  • Cannon-Bard
    • "I see the bear, am afraid, and then run."
  • Two-Factor
    • "I'm aroused, I must be feeling the emotion around me."
      • Video: Schacter-Singer Theory
    • Video: High Bridge experiment
      • More men who met the experimenter on the scary bridge called her later that night.
    • First date example.
      • One of my colleagues suggested slipping your first date some No Doz (over the counter stimulant) at the end of the date.
      • That way once at home the date would notice sleeplessness, giving the idea that the date was good because of not being able to sleep.

Emotion in Nonhuman Animals

• Darwin's Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals review (Abed & Smith, 2023)
  • Darwin's "forgotten masterpiece"
  • Foundational text of evolutionary psychology?
  • Argument for evolutionary continuity
  • Does not elaborate on function of emotions
  • First science book to show photos of human emotional facial expressions
    • Video: Marc Bekoff discusses animal emotions
      • You'll likely have to wait for PBS to show you some ads first
      • Bekoff is famous for his research on animals (especially dogs).
• Tinklepaugh and Animal Emotion
  • Tinklepaugh (1928), using a delayed reaction task, demonstrated that monkeys reacted negatively when they were shown a banana being hidden under a cup, but discovering that lettuce had been substituted there in their absence.
    • As a control, Tinklepaugh had also left the lettuce hidden and untouched in other trials.
    • Here is his description of the monkey’s reactions (p. 229) during the control (a) and experimental conditions (b):
      
      • (a) Subject rushes to proper cup and picks it up. Seizes lettuce. Rushes away with lettuce in mouth, paying no attention to other cup or to setting. Time, 3–4 seconds.
        
      • (b) Subject rushes to proper cup and picks it up. Extends hand toward lettuce. Stops. Looks around on floor. Looks in, under, around cup. Glances at other cup. Looks back at screen. Looks under and around self.
      • Looks and shrieks at any observer present. Walks away, leaving lettuce untouched on floor. Time, 10–33 seconds.
    • In other words, the monkeys reacted negatively when their expectation (lettuce instead of banana) was violated.
      
  • He and Tolman interpreted these results as evidence that the monkey expected lettuce in the control condition and received it, but expected a banana in the experimental condition and received lettuce instead.
  • They interpreted the monkey’s different reaction in each case as behavioral evidence of different cognitive states. Tolman believed he had demonstrated expectancy (a cognitive state) in a non-human animal.
• Dog emotions: Notice ears, tail, body posture

My new dog, Icy, attempts to signal our cat that she wants to play. But, the cat does not speak dog :-(

• Lorenz: Dog's emotional faces
  • Fear rises on Y axis (up and down)
  • Aggression rises on X axis (left to right)
  • Which of these might cause your postal mail to be undelivered?
• 
• Rats Learn to Drive
  • Rats living in enriched environments learned to drive sooner
  • Rats and humans must learn how to drive
    • Flexible brains help
  • Rats made to wait before driving became more optimistic
    • Tail with hook (Straub tail)
      • Indicates happiness (or lots of dopamine)
    • Is the rat on the left (with Straub tail) happy?

  

  • Linked to dopamine
  • "Planning, anticipating, and enjoying the ride may be key to a healthy brain."
    • Video: Rats revving engine
      • The researchers have yet to determine why the rats are gunning the engine before driving!
• Animal Fear Responses
  • Escape and Avoidance Conditioning
    • Escape conditioning: leave an aversive situation
      • e.g., dog in shuttle box jumps to other side when shocked, you don't go to dentist with mild tooth pain
    • Avoidance conditioning: signal predicts shock so dog jumps when light comes on and AVOIDS the shock
      • What happens when shock turned off but light stays on? Dog jumps (e.g., avoidance conditioning is hard to extinguish)
    • Graphic: Dog avoiding shock (signal preceded the shock)
    • Escape conditioning is a form of aversive conditioning.
      • The word aversive refers to stimuli that are avoided.
      • Generally, those stimuli are unpleasant or painful.
      • Escape conditioning occurs when an aversive stimulus is presented and an animal responds by leaving the stimulus situation.

      • In the lab, escape conditioning can be demonstrated with a shuttle box.
      • A shuttle box is an enclosure with two sections separated by a partition.
      • For example, a dog shuttle box might have a low barrier separating the two halves.
      • To demonstrate escape conditioning all that is necessary is to shock the dog's feet. The dog then jumps to the other side of the box.
      • Then, after a time, the dog is shocked again. It then jumps over the barrier again, escaping the shock.
      • Someone who finds school aversive may escape that situation.
      • Most states require attendance until age 16.
        • However, once students turn 16 they no longer must attend.
        • So, some drop out at that point.
        • Dropping out is a form of escape conditioning.
    • Avoidance conditioning is similar to escape conditioning.
      • The difference is that a CS is given before the presentation of an aversive stimulus.
        • For example, a light may precede the shock by a few seconds.
      • What does the animal do under this new setup?
• At first, its behavior is no different than it was for escape conditioning.
• Namely, it jumps the barrier when the shock is delivered.
• Soon, however, it begins to jump before the shock.
• It jumps when the light comes on and thus avoids the shock.
• Also, unlike escape conditioning, the animal settles down emotionally.
• Dogs quit yelping, and calmly jump to the other side when the CS comes on.
• Now, think what would happen if the CS were left on, but the shock discontinued.
• The animal continues to jump every time the light comes on.
• The animal will not test whether or not the shock is still on.
• Therefore, avoidance conditioning is highly resistant to extinction.
• You can get extinction if you restrain the animal after the light comes on, but it will struggle and show emotional arousal.
• After a number trials under restraint, the animal will extinguish.
• Much of human behavior is explained via avoidance conditioning.
• Think of going to the dentist, for example.
• Most of us avoid going until the pain is already unbearable.
  • Video: Dentist drill sound
    • Might you want to avoid hearing that sound?
• Another good example is when we have to get an injection.
• We learned long ago to avoid the person and the place where injections are given.
  • Our children quickly learned that going into the back room at the local clinic was a CS for an immunization injection, and they began to cry as soon as they entered that room, well before actually getting the injection.
• Learned Helplessness
  • Seligman discovered it
    • Used dogs in shuttle box
    • But, he restrained the dogs while they were being shocked
    • Later, when they were not restrained most did not jump over barrier to avoid the shock
    • They had learned that there was nothing they could do
  • Applies to humans as well
    • Think of spousal abuse
      • Many abused spouses act as if they cannot avoid the abuse
      • In fact, in many women's shelters it is difficult to make the abused wives not return to the abusing situation
    • Seligman placed human volunteers in a small room doing a repetitive task
      • In the room was a speaker with a volume knob playing loud, bad music
      • Seligman had disabled the knob, volunteers learned that it did not work
      • Later, he enable the knob (without informing them) hardly anyone retried the knob
      • They had learned to be helpless

Memory for Emotional Events

• Video: McGaugh and Cahill chat with Alan Alda (7:50 but worth it
  • Emotion makes extreme memories etched into brain:
    • Nobel Prize winners likely remember everything about the phone call from Copenhagen
    • First responders picking up body parts (a bad memory)
    • Insults too, but not frightening (actors and bad reviews)
  • Ice water after experiment enhances memory
    • Activates body's stress hormones
    • A week later, those who had ice water remember better
    • Amygdala involved
    • Near hippocampus, consolidate the memory
  • Another experiment
• Emotional events followed by brain scans
• Women: left amygdala
• Men: right amygdala
• After, information stored by males and females stored differently
• Commercials
  • Funny
    • Video: child in supermarket
    • Video: Doritos teasing
  • Arousing?
    • Video: Doritos illicit romance
    • Video: M&Ms party
  • Emotional:
    • St. Judes ad
    • ASPCA ad
    • Which made you more emotional?
    • Psychology Today (2017)article
      • Save dog or person?
        • 33%+ chose dog
      • Babies, puppies, and dogs empathized with at same level
      • MRIs reveal "dogs and children are equally lovable""
      • Conclusion:
        • "Subjects did not view their dogs as animals, but rather as 'fur babies' or family members alongside human children."
          
  • Banned
    • You''ll have to find those yourself :-)
• Flashbulb Memories
  • Recall of important public or private events
  • Called "flashbulb" because it's as if you took a picture of it in your mind
  • Public event examples: Pearl Harbor (1941), Kennedy assasination (1963), World Trade Center (2011)
  • Can be personal too, like when you get the fat envelope from Harvard grad school (that means you're in!)
• Traumatic Events
  • Tend to be retrieved easier
  • May be disturbing (e.g., PTSD, more below)

Brain Substrates

• Emotional Learning in the Brain
• Amygdala and its subregions (p. 440)
  • Projects to autonomic nervous system and motor areas
  • In animals, stimulation of the amygdala may result in "dramatic emotional displays" (p. 441)
  • In humans, amygdala stimulation does not cause strong behavioral or physiological response
• Fast-and-Rough
  • Thalamus to Amygdala
  • Faster
  • Less detail
• Slower-but-Accurate
  • Slower
  • Involves cortex
  • More detail
• Optogenetics (p. 444)
  • Inject new genes into specific cells
    • Video: Optogenetics explained
• Amygdala Activation (p. 447)
  • Healthy individuals recall more details about emotionally arousing films.
• Epinephrine (p. 449)
  • Cannot cross blood-brain barrier
  • Injections improve memory
• Norepinephrine
  • Can cross blood-brain barrier
  • Can reduce memory for emotional material

Clinical Perspectives

• Phobias
  • Phobic Disorder: Phobias are irrational fears and include: fear of spiders (arachnophobia), fear of leaving your home (agoraphobia), and many others. The next chapter will discuss therapies for them.
    • Here is a list of phobias and their technical names
    • Phobias are irrational fears.
      • Spiders, snakes, the dark, and fear of heights are common kinds of phobias.
    • Although the notion of phobias derives from psychoanalytic theory, the best approaches for therapy have been behavioral.
    • A relatively common phobia that is not usually observed is agoraphobia.
    • "Agora" is the Greek word for marketplace, so agoraphobia is fear of the marketplace, or fear of going outdoors.
      • Agoraphobics are not usually seen because they often remain in their houses.
        • Notice how since Covid many businesses now unwittingly can cater to agoraphobics by filling their online orders and delivering them to their homes.
          • Walmart, for instance, is now full of employee "shoppers" fulfilling online orders.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder can develop after direful events, oppressive situations, cruel abuse, and disasters.
    • DSM now includes it for those who experience, witness, or hear about traumatic events
    • Symptoms include:
      • flashbacks
      • avoidance of emotional experiences
      • anxiety, nervousness, excessive arousal, and inability to sleep
      • memory and concentration problems
      • impulsive behavior

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