情感一致性对刻板印象激活的影响

情感一致性是指情感具身反应(情感感受、表情及情感的相关身体动作等)和情感认知评价(情感观念性内容,积极或消极)在效价层面上的耦合关系。实验以89名大学生为被试,考察了情感一致性对(性别)刻板印象的影响。实验通过音乐启动相应的情感感受(积极或消极)操纵情感具身反应,采用快速组句任务启动相应的情感信念(积极或消极)操纵情感认知评价,89名被试被随机分配到四种实验条件下,最后所有被试参与(性别)刻板印象IAT测验。结果发现:情感不一致条件促进(性别)刻板印象激活;情感一致性没有导致流畅性的变化;情感感受调节了消极阈下情感信念对刻板印象激活的作用。     

“右好左坏”和“左好右坏”——利手与左右空间情感效价的关联性

人们会将“右”和“左”与积极或消极的事物相关联,这称为左右空间的情感效价.以具身认知理论和躯体特异性假设为基础的研究发现,右利手会将右侧空间与积极事物相关联,而左利手则会将左侧空间与积极事物相关连;左右空间情感效价是由利手与非利手的运动经验塑造的;利手与非利手运动经验的改变则会反转左右空间情感效价;趋近动机脑功能偏侧化与利手是一致的.未来的研究应进一步澄清利手运动与趋近动机在神经机制上的关联性,并探索文化因素与身体经验如何共同塑造左右空间情感效价.     

对象概念的具身认知能力模型构建

研究旨在从具身认知视角重新建构概念熟悉度、概念掌握度及名词具身性的定义和评价指标,探索了具体名词的具身性与概念掌握度的关系。借助Amsel等(2012)的调查结果和MRC心理语言学数据,采用逻辑演绎与回归分析结合的建模法构建了376个具体名词的具身性与概念掌握度的关系模型,提出了具身认知能力假设。结果表明,对象概念的在线加工过程呈现出一个较长的“停滞期”,反映了认知主体的具身认知潜势。     

镜像神经元:认知具身性的神经生物学证据

传统认知心理学认为认知类似于计算机对抽象符号的加工和运算,这种观点支持了身心二元论。但是近年来兴起的具身认知运动却否定了这一观点的合理性。具身认知认为认知是身体与世界互动的结果,是身体的感觉-运动系统作用于世界而塑造出来的。认知是具身的,离不开身体的构造和感觉运动系统的作用。镜像神经元的发现支持了认知的具身特征,为认知的具身性提供了神经生物学的证据。     

有关具身认知的三种理论模型

具身认知强调了身体在认知中的关键作用,主张身体的构造和状态、身体的物理属性及其大脑与身体的特殊感觉—运动通道对认知的形成产生了根本影响。具身认知的相关理论虽然直接或者间接承认身体对心智的塑造关系,但是存在一些观点的不一致,导致具身认知理论难以统一到相同的框架上来,具身认知大致可以归结为三种模型:概念隐喻理论,知觉符号理论和感知运动模拟隐喻理论。     

具身概念表征的研究及理论述评

具身认知强调认知在本质上是具身的, 身体在认知的实现中发挥着关键作用。传统的符号加工理论认为, 概念表征独立于主体的知觉运动系统并以抽象符号的形式储存于语言记忆中。概念表征的具身理论则认为, 概念表征与知觉运动系统具有共同的神经基础, 概念在本质上是主体经验客体时知觉与运动体验的神经记录, 而概念加工的基本形式则是身体经验的模拟与还原。关于该理论的实证研究主要集中于概念加工引发的知觉动作变化、身体动作对概念加工的影响、抽象概念加工的具身特征等领域。今后的研究应关注符号加工理论与具身理论的整合等。     

态度结构一致性及其对态度和行为的影响

态度结构一致性指态度的情感或认知成分与总体态度的一致程度以及态度的情感与认知成分两者间的一致程度。本文介绍了结构一致性的界定和操作方法,回顾了结构一致性对态度和行为的影响,包括其在态度形成中的作用以及对态度可获得性和态度-行为关系的影响。同时指出未来研究应关注各种结构一致性的交互,将结构一致性研究推广到群体水平,并进一步应用于社会预警研究。     

内隐序列学习意识的具身机制

内隐序列学习意识已有三类理论如全局工作平台理论、神经可塑性理论、新异刺激理论都忽略了身体感受的关键因素, 难以揭示意识产生的根本原因。具身意识理论和研究发现, 运动/情感镜像神经元系统及与自我、认知控制系统的交互, 是初级/高级意识产生的本源, 但未涉及内隐序列学习规则意识这个对人类学习认知至关重要的领域。内隐序列学习研究实质上已接近揭示其学习机制正是感知觉运动具身学习, 其意识机制很可能是感知觉运动/情感具身意识, 并且其意识加工脑区与具身意识脑区有关键重合。未来研究可采用Granger因果大脑网络技术证明内隐序列学习意识的具身本源, 并考察已有三类意识理论的具身基础, 以及探索意识影响因素的具身机制。     

身心二元论的困境与具身认知研究的兴起

摘要 由笛卡尔开创的身心二元论一直制约着人们对身心关系的认识。但是近年来兴起的具身认知研究却从理论和实证的角度系统论证了二元论的不可能性,指出了心智对身体的依赖性,并据此提出了身心一体的身心关系学说。最初,有关具身认知的讨论仅仅是哲学领域有关身心关系问题的形而上学思考,随后开始成为心理学中的一种理论思维,并逐步进入实验心理学领域。如今,ERP、FMRI等认知神经科学的手段在具身认知的研究中得到了广泛使用。具身认知已成为心理学和认知科学中的一股汹涌澎湃的实证研究思潮。     

替代还是和解:论具身认知进路与标准认知科学之关系

20世纪80年代末,具身认知进路针对早期或标准认知科学的哲学立场及其计算-表征的解释模型发起了攻击,并自视为其替代进路。然而,人们对具身认知进路与标准认知科学关系的界定不尽相同。30年来,早期或标准认知科学在各种诟病下依旧松茂竹苞。一方面,标准认知科学在一些问题上对具身认知进路作出了回应;另一方面,由于具身认知进路自身在诸如身体如何塑造概念、意义的理解、延展认知以及表征-需求等问题上未给出充分论证,使其不仅不足以撼动标准认知科学的主导地位,而且随着具身认知进路在很多问题上的深入展开,最终它将不得不选择一条与标准认知科学和解的道路。     

Facial Reactions to Emotional Facial Expressions: Affect or Cognition?

This study investigated whether observers' facial reactions to the emotional facial expressions of others represent an affective or a cognitive response to these emotional expressions. Three hypotheses were contrasted: (1) facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are due to mimicry as part of an affective empathic reaction; (2) facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are a reflection of shared affect due to emotion induction; and (3) facial reactions to emotional facial expressions are determined by cognitive load depending on task difficulty. Two experiments were conducted varying type of task, presentation of stimuli, and task difficulty. The results show that depending on the nature of the rating task, facial reactions to facial expressions may be either affective or cognitive. Specifically, evidence for facial mimicry was only found when individuals made judgements regarding the valence of an emotional facial expression. Other types of judgements regarding facial expressions did not seem to elicit mimicry but may lead to facial responses related to cognitive load.     

Affective incoherence: when affective concepts and embodied reactions clash

In five studies, the authors examined the effects on cognitive performance of coherence and incoherence between conceptual and experiential sources of affective information. The studies crossed the priming of happy and sad concepts with affective experiences. In different experiments, these included approach or avoidance actions, happy or sad feelings, and happy or sad expressive behaviors. In all studies, coherence between affective concepts and affective experiences led to better recall of a story than did affective incoherence. The authors suggest that the experience of such experiential affective cues serves as evidence of the appropriateness of affective concepts that come to mind. The results suggest that affective coherence has epistemic benefits and that incoherence is costly in terms of cognitive performance.     

Self‐ambivalence and reactions to success versus failure

People differ in the extent to which their self‐evaluations fluctuate in response to positive and negative events. This research tests whether self‐ambivalence predicts this self‐evaluative reactivity. Participants first completed measures of self‐ambivalence and baseline self‐esteem. Next, they were induced a success or failure experience in a cognitive task and finally rated their cognitive self‐evaluations (task‐specific ability, state self‐esteem) and affective reactions (self‐feelings, mood). Self‐ambivalence was associated with stronger effects of the success/failure manipulation on cognitive self‐evaluations but not on affective reactions, with baseline self‐esteem controlled. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotion regulation through execution,observation, and imagery of emotional movements

According to Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, emotions are generated by conveying the current state of the body to the brain through interoceptive and proprioceptive afferent input. The resulting brain activation patterns represent unconscious emotions and correlate with subjective feelings. This proposition implies a corollary that the deliberate control of motor behavior could regulate feelings. We tested this possibility, hypothesizing that engaging in movements associated with a certain emotion would enhance that emotion and/or the corresponding valence. Furthermore, because motor imagery and observation are thought to activate the same mirror-neuron network engaged during motor execution, they might also activate the same emotional processing circuits, leading to similar emotional effects. Therefore, we measured the effects of motor execution, motor imagery and observation of whole-body dynamic expressions of emotions (happiness, sadness, fear) on affective state. All three tasks enhanced the corresponding affective state, indicating their potential to regulate emotions.     

情绪加工的脑机制研究及其现状

本文从情绪的效价载荷及其脑功能成像研究、面部表情的识别及其脑功能成像研究以及情绪的诱发及其脑功能成像研究等三方面介绍了情绪加工的脑机制及其研究现状。从现有的研究成果来看,大脑皮层在加工不同效价载荷的情绪时具有很大的重叠性;有关面部表情识别的研究表明,不同的神经环路负责调节对不同面部表情的反应;有关诱发的情绪的研究表明,前扣带回皮层在表征实验诱发的情绪时扮演着一个非常重要的角色。文章最后指出了情绪研究目前面临的一些问题,并指出在我国开展情绪的脑机制研究的重要意义。     

Mothers' responses to infants' facial expressions of sadness,anger, and physical distress

It was hypothesized the mothers' predictions of their caregiving interventions would be differentially influenced by infants' facial expressions of sadness, anger, and physical distress. Mothers viewed slides of infants whose facial displays had first been objectively classified with the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (Izard, 1979). Mothers imagined their infants showing similar expressions while scaling their own tendencies to respond with a number of specific caregiving and socializing interventions and affective reactions. Multivariate ANOVAs showed that the mothers' predictions differed for the three types of negative display. In an emotion decoding task, mothers' responses did not differ as a function of the infants' sex. The patterns of decoded emotions were most similar between physical distress and anger expressions, and least similar between physical distress and sadness expressions. Generally, the findings supported the hypothesis that the negative facial displayes signaled different affective states and had differential motivational effects on the mothers.     

Enhanced embodied response following ambiguous emotional processing

It has generally been assumed that high-level cognitive and emotional processes are based on amodal conceptual information. In contrast, however, "embodied simulation" theory states that the perception of an emotional signal can trigger a simulation of the related state in the motor, somatosensory, and affective systems. To study the effect of social context on the mimicry effect predicted by the "embodied simulation" theory, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of participants when looking at emotional facial expressions. We observed an increase in embodied responses when the participants were exposed to a context involving social valence before seeing the emotional facial expressions. An examination of the dynamic EMG activity induced by two socially relevant emotional expressions (namely joy and anger) revealed enhanced EMG responses of the facial muscles associated with the related social prime (either positive or negative). These results are discussed within the general framework of embodiment theory.     

Enhanced embodied response following ambiguous emotional processing

It has generally been assumed that high-level cognitive and emotional processes are based on amodal conceptual information. In contrast, however, “embodied simulation” theory states that the perception of an emotional signal can trigger a simulation of the related state in the motor, somatosensory, and affective systems. To study the effect of social context on the mimicry effect predicted by the “embodied simulation” theory, we recorded the electromyographic (EMG) activity of participants when looking at emotional facial expressions. We observed an increase in embodied responses when the participants were exposed to a context involving social valence before seeing the emotional facial expressions. An examination of the dynamic EMG activity induced by two socially relevant emotional expressions (namely joy and anger) revealed enhanced EMG responses of the facial muscles associated with the related social prime (either positive or negative). These results are discussed within the general framework of embodiment theory.     

Intuitive (in)coherence judgments are guided by processing fluency, mood and affect

Recently proposed accounts of intuitive judgments of semantic coherence assume that processing fluency results in a positive affective response leading to successful assessment of semantic coherence. The present paper investigates whether processing fluency may indicate semantic incoherence as well. In two studies, we employ a new paradigm in which participants have to detect an incoherent item among semantically coherent words. In Study 1, we show participants accurately indicating an incoherent item despite not being able to provide an accurate solution to coherent words. Further, this effect is modified by affective valence of solution words that are not retrieved from memory. Study 2 replicates those results and extend them by showing that mood moderates incoherence judgments independently of affective valence of solutions. The results support processing fluency account of intuitive semantic coherence judgments and show that it is not fluency per se but fluency variations that drive judgments.     

Valence focus and the perception of facial affect

Individuals differ in the extent to which they emphasize feelings of pleasure or displeasure in their verbal reports of emotional experience, an individual difference termed valence focus (VF). This multimethod study indicates that VF is linked to heightened efficiency in perceptual processing of affective stimuli. Individuals higher in VF (i.e., who emphasized feelings of pleasure/displeasure in reports of emotional experiences) were more sensitive to changes in negative facial expressions than individuals lower in VF. The effect was not accounted for by current affective state or other personality characteristics. Implications for the validity of self-reported experienced emotion are discussed.