Cognition and emotion: a plea for theory

ABSTRACT

Research on cognition and emotion during the past 30 years has made reasonable progress in theory, methods and empirical research. New theories of the cognition–emotion relation have been proposed, emotion research has become more interdisciplinary, and improved methods of emotion measurement have been developed. On the empirical side, the main achievement of the past 30 years is seen to consist in the reduction of the set of serious contenders for a theory of emotions. Still, several important issues are not fully resolved, including the computational implementation of appraisal processes, the nature of emotions, and the link between emotions and actions. Also, quantitative theories of the cognition–emotion relation need to be refined and tested, and improved theories of the link between emotions and bodily and facial expressions need to be developed. To counter the dangers of theoretical fragmentation and knowledge loss, more efforts should be devoted to the analysis, reconstruction, comparison and integration of important theories and hypotheses in the field of emotion, as well as to the systematization of arguments in favor and against these theories and hypotheses.     

Sex differences in human olfaction: Between evidence and enigma

The sex of individuals plays an important part in determining their olfactory abilities, with females generally being superior to males. The present review examines the way in which sex differences influence sensitivity, identification, familiarity, and recognition of odours. It also examines whether sex differences are more pronounced with some odours than others, and how sex differences are affected by the manner of testing. Two different explanations for the superiority of females over males in olfaction are evaluated.     

Bilingualism and Creativity: Towards a Situated Cognition Approach

In this paper, the association between bilingualism and creativity is investigated. In the first part, the results of a literature review are reported. Previous research predominantly found that bilinguals outperform monolinguals on creativity tasks, which was explained by bilinguals’ enhanced executive functioning compared to monolinguals, and their experience with multiple cultures. Most previous research has examined the relationship between bilingualism and creativity within a psychological trait framework, which does not take into account that cognitive processes are regarded to be situated‐embodied, meaning that they are influenced by environmental factors, and by a person's perceptions of and actions towards these environmental factors. In the second part, we discuss an alternative approach, in which creativity can be defined as the emerging skill of an individual to discover affordances, to come up with creative ideas and products. Recommendations for future research are discussed as well.     

Animal Cognition: The Bridge BetweenAnimal Learning and Human Cognition

Carefully controlled research with animals has demonstrated cognitive capacities for which traditional theories of associative learning cannot account. One example is the symbolic representation of stimuli. If two arbitrary stimuli are associated with a third event, an emergent relation can be shown to develop. A second example is the ability of animals to plan ahead, and to choose whether to plan ahead or not. Although animals have often been used to model drug effects in humans, these models have rarely been used to examine the effects of drugs on cognitive functioning. Furthermore, examination of the effects of drugs on the cognitive behavior of animals may help to identify the nature of the representations underlying the cognition.     

Phenomenal and access consciousness in olfaction

Contemporary literature on consciousness, with some exceptions, rarely considers the olfactory system. In this article the characteristics of olfactory consciousness, viewed from the standpoint of the phenomenal (P)/access (A) distinction, are examined relative to the major senses. The review details several qualitative differences in both olfactory P consciousness (shifts in the felt location, universal synesthesia-like and affect-rich experiences, and misperceptions) and A consciousness (recovery from habituation, capacity for conscious processing, access to semantic and episodic memory, learning, attention, and in the serial-unitary nature of olfactory percepts). The basis for these differences is argued to arise from the functions that the olfactory system performs and from the unique neural architecture needed to instantiate them. These data suggest, at a minimum, that P and A consciousness are uniquely configured in olfaction and an argument can be made that the P and A distinction may not hold for this sensory system.     

Social Cognition in Multiple Sclerosis: a Meta-Analysis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with cognitive decline and impairment in social functioning. Accumulating evidence suggests that patients with MS are impaired in social cognition, including theory of mind (ToM) and emotion recognition. In this meta-analysis of 24 studies, facial emotion recognition and ToM performances of 989 patients with MS and 836 healthy controls were compared. MS was associated with significant impairments with medium effect sizes in ToM (d?=?0.57) and facial emotion recognition (d?=?0.61). Among individual emotions recognition of fear and anger were particularly impaired. The severity of social cognitive deficits was significantly associated with non-social cognitive impairment. These deficits in social cognition may underpin difficulties in social functioning in MS. However, there is a need for further studies investigating the longitudinal evolution of social cognitive deficits and their neural correlates in MS.     

Identification of self through olfaction

To study olfactory communication in humans, 100 undergraduates ranging from age 18 to 45 yr. wore freshly washed, identical T-shirts continuously for 24 hr. During this time, the participants did not bathe or shower or apply any scent producing substance to their bodies, i.e., deodorants, perfumes. Upon retrieval, each shirt was placed in an identical brown bag. In groups of 10, each participant attempted to identify the T-shirt he had worn the previous 24 hr. The task was administered separately for each individual so that no participants knew the choice by a previous colleague. Analysis shows that the participants were able to identify correctly their own shirts on the first try three-quarters of the time. Furthermore, sex, age, smoking habit of the participant, and menstrual cycle phase in the women were factors in successful outcomes.     

5th International Conference on Spatial Cognition: Space and Embodied Cognition

Communication

5th International Conference on Spatial Cognition: Space and Embodied Cognition Rome, Italy: September 4–8, 2012     

A factorial analysis of olfaction

Twenty-one reagents were rated on a pleasantness scale by 182 subjects. The tetrachoric correlation coefficients were determined for the variables. The correlation matrix thus obtained was subjected to a Thurstone analysis which gave rise to a 6-dimensional structure. Two of these were not clear-cut, and the last one appeared to be a residual factor. One factor, the benzene-ketone, revealed the chemical property of unsaturation and the physiological quality of possible trigeminal stimulation. The other two factors were marked by the presence of oxygen and nitrogen, respectively, and were tentatively labelled as a plant factor and an animal factor accordingly. The intercorrelations of the primaries are high.The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor L. L. Thurstone for his kindness in providing facilities which made this study possible and for his guidance on the factorial problem; to Doctor T. G. Andrews for his many invaluable assistances and technical advice on the experimental aspect of this problem; to Miss Florence Brown for her editorial assistance; and to Mrs. Virginia Brown for her generous assistance on the computational procedures.     

存在图:逻辑和认知

作为思维的动画,存在图是查尔斯·皮尔士在现代符号逻辑草创时期所建立的图式逻辑。20世纪初期,现代观念的符号逻辑出现之时,存在图在学界的研究有着完全相反的立场,其传播过程更是相当微妙。存在图的哲学方面对当前哲学研究具有重要的意义和影响,如镜像逻辑和图像之间的关系、逻辑常项的意义问题、镜像逻辑的认知经济性、弗雷格-罗素论题的失败以及思维语言假设的失败等。     

Corticosteroids and Cognition: A Meta-Analysis

Neuropsychology Review - A thorough understanding of the cognitive effects of corticosteroids is essential given their frequency of use. This meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the effects...