Chapter 10: Emotional Influence on Learning and Memory

A cluster of three distinct, interrelated phenomena.

1.

Physiological response 2. Overt/observable behavior 3. Conscious feelings

Heart rate, perspiration, respiration, other body functions

Facial expression, tone, posture, laughter, tears

Subjective experience of happiness, sadness

*Vary by culture *Gender: women more likely to express happiness, sadness. Human emotions innate and universal, but outward expression governed by cultural and social learning.

Focus on fear (easy to induce, detect, and record).

Learning based on emotional response fast, strong, long lasting.

learning to predict danger.

*CR (freezing) may occur after one CS-US pairing *Long lasting, hard to extinguish * Requires numerous extinction trails, does not eliminate CR, only reduce chance CS elicits *CER high spontaneous recovery

Learning to get away from danger. Learning to escape or terminate aversive stimulus.

(negative reinforcement) Learning fast

Learned responses to avoid or prevent aversive stimuli: often resistant to extinction.

Avoidance learning combination of classical and operant conditioning

First stage is classical conditioning (CS evokes conditioned emotional response, fear) and the second stage is operant conditioning (avoidance response is reinforced).

Weigh possible behaviors based on possible outcomes

Prior exposure to inescapable shock (classical conditioning) taught animals that they were helpless to escape any shock. Uncontrollable punisher teaches expectation that responses ineffectual, reduce motivation to attempt new avoidance responses

emotion and encoding memories: the more arousing, better encoding of details and retrieval

Easier to retrieve memories matching current mood/emotional state (compare with transfer appropriate processing) *Mood/emotion serve as memory cue.

Vivid episodic memories with exceptional strength and durability *remember what, when, and where- smell, sound, etc.

National disaster longer lasting, vivid, largely accurate, but not perfect photograph of event

As time progress, fill gaps with detail

Central processing station of emotions

From thalamus ("sensory gateway") to amygdala and cortex (fine detail) *important role in responding to fear-evoking stimuli *direct and indirect pathway

Faster less detail quick reaction *amygdala--> ANS and motor areas

slower finer stimulus details- terminate fear response.

Seat of executive functions, responsible for most planning and decision making. * it is intensely involved in modulation social behavior (expression of emotion and reading other's emotion)

*Fewer and less intense facial expressions *Impaired ability to recognize negative facial expressions

Heightened emotionality, inappropriate social behavior (profanity, public masturbation), rapid mood swings, violent anger, aggression.

Excessive and irrational fear of object, place or situation *often justified fear of object or situation; phobia if interferes with daily life.

vicarious learning, fear evoke response (cc)

successive approximation/presentation of CS

A psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of a life-threatening event.

Strong fear response, helplessness, terror *Intrusive recollections (flashbacks, nightmares), avoidance or reminders, heightened anxiety *Increased arousal: insomnia, irritability, difficulty concentration, hyper-vigilance, exaggerated startle response.