CiteULike: Tag emotion

The affective consequences of social comparison: either direction has its ups and downs.

BP Buunk — 2007-01-06T19:43:48-00:00

J Pers Soc Psychol, Vol. 59, No. 6. (December 1990), pp. 1238-1249.

Research on social comparison processes has assumed that a comparison in a given direction (upward or downward) will lead to a particular affective reaction. In contrast, the present two studies proposed and found that a comparison can produce either positive or negative feelings about oneself, independent of its direction. Several factors moderated the tendency to derive positive or negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. In Study 1, cancer patients low in self-esteem and with low perceived control over their symptoms and illness were more likely to see downward comparisons as having negative implications for themselves. Those low in self-esteem were also more likely to perceive upward comparisons as negative. In Study 2, individuals with high marital dissatisfaction and those who felt uncertain about their marital relationship were more likely to experience negative affect from upward and downward comparisons. The implications of these findings for social comparison theory and for the coping and adaptation literature are discussed.

Supporting children's emotional expression and exploration in online environments

Alissa Antle — 2005-02-03T22:30:38-00:00

(2004), pp. 97-104.

THE ROLE OF THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE IN EMOTIONAL COMMUNICATION

Lee Blonder — 2007-05-24T12:26:25-00:00

Brain, Vol. 114, No. 3. (1 June 1991), pp. 1115-1127.

Previous research has established that patients with right hemisphere damage (RHD) are impaired in the comprehension of emotional prosody and facial expression. There are several explanations for this impairment. It may reflect defective acoustic and visuospatial analysis, disruption of nonverbal communicative representations, or a disturbance in the comprehension of emotional meaning. In order to examine these hypotheses, we asked RHD patients, left hemisphere damaged patients (LHD) and normal controls (NC) to judge the emotional content of sentences describing nonverbal expressions, and sentences describing emotional situations. We found that RHD subjects performed normally in their ability to infer the emotion conveyed by sentences describing situations. However, RHD patients were impaired in relation to both LHD and NC in the capacity to judge the emotional content of sentences depicting facial, prosodic, and gestural expressions, suggesting a disruption of nonverbal communicative representations. 10.1093/brain/114.3.1115

A neural network reflecting individual differences in cognitive processing of emotions during perceptual decision making

Katja Meriau — 2006-10-27T14:58:58-00:00

NeuroImage, Vol. 33, No. 3. (15 November 2006), pp. 1016-1027.

Even simple perceptual decisions are influenced by the emotional content of a stimulus. Recent neuroimaging studies provide evidence about the neural mechanisms of perceptual decision making on emotional stimuli. However, the effect of individual differences in cognitive processing of emotions on perceptual decision making remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated how changes in the fMRI signal during perceptual decision making on facial stimuli covaried with individual differences in the ability to identify and communicate one's emotional state. Although this personality trait covaried with changes in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during gender decisions on facial expressions, there was no correlation during emotion decisions. Further, we investigated whether individual differences in the ability to cognitively process emotions depend on differences in the functional integration of emotional and cognitive brain regions. We therefore compared task-dependent changes in effective connectivity of dACC in individuals with good and with poor ability to cognitively process emotions using a psychophysiological interaction analysis. We found greater coupling of dACC with prefrontal regions in individuals with good ability to identify and communicate their emotional state. Conversely, individuals with poor ability in this domain showed greater coupling of dACC with the amygdala. Our data indicate that individual differences in the ability to identify and communicate one's emotional state are reflected by altered effective connectivity of the dACC with prefrontal and limbic regions. Thus, we provide neurophysiological evidence for a theoretical model that posits that a discommunication between limbic areas and the neocortex impairs cognitive processing of emotions.

Emotional Facial Expression Classification for Multimodal User Interfaces

Eva Cerezo — 2007-08-01T09:04:53-00:00

Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects (2006), pp. 405-413.

We present a simple and computationally feasible method to perform automatic emotional classification of facial expressions. We propose the use of 10 characteristic points (that are part of the MPEG4 feature points) to extract relevant emotional information (basically five distances, presence of wrinkles and mouth shape). The method defines and detects the six basic emotions (plus the neutral one) in terms of this information and has been fine-tuned with a data-base of 399 images. For the moment, the method is applied to static images. Application to sequences is being now developed. The extraction of such information about the user is of great interest for the development of new multimodal user interfaces.

Toward Machine Emotional Intelligence: Analysis of Affective Physiological State

Rosalind Picard — 2006-11-06T11:47:06-00:00

IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., Vol. 23, No. 10. (October 2001), pp. 1175-1191.

Emotion recognition from physiological signals using wireless sensors for presence technologies

Fatma Nasoz — 2008-01-09T15:11:17-00:00

Cognition, Technology & Work, Vol. 6, No. 1. (1 February 2004), pp. 4-14.

In this article we describe a new approach to enhance presence technologies. First, we discuss the strong relationship between cognitive processes and emotions and how human physiology is uniquely affected when experiencing each emotion. Secondly, we introduce our prototype multimodal affective user interface. In the remainder of the paper we describe the emotion elicitation experiment we designed and conducted and the algorithms we implemented to analyse the physiological signals associated with emotions. These algorithms can then be used to recognise the affective states of users from physiological data collected via non-invasive technologies. The affective intelligent user interfaces we plan to create will adapt to user affect dynamically in the current context, thus providing enhanced social presence.

Emotion, motivation, and anxiety: brain mechanisms and psychophysiology

Peter Lang — 2008-01-03T12:18:10-00:00

Biological Psychiatry, Vol. 44, No. 12. (15 December 1998), pp. 1248-1263.

The organization of response systems in emotion is founded on two basic motive systems, appetitive and defensive. The subcortical and deep cortical structures that determine primary motivated behavior are similar across mammalian species. Animal research has illuminated these neural systems and defined their reflex outputs. Although motivated behavior is more complex and varied in humans, the simpler underlying response patterns persist in affective expression. These basic phenomena are elucidated here in the context of affective perception. Thus, the research examines human beings watching uniquely human stimuli--primarily picture media (but also words and sounds) that prompt emotional arousal--showing how the underlying motivational structure is apparent in the organization of visceral and behavioral responses, in the priming of simple reflexes, and in the reentrant processing of these symbolic representations in the sensory cortex. Implications of the work for understanding pathological emotional states are discussed, emphasizing research on psychopathy and the anxiety disorders.

Automatic Mood Detection from Acoustic Music Data

Dan Liu — 2007-10-23T09:36:07-00:00

Music mood describes the inherent emotional meaning of a music clip. It is helpful in music understanding, music search and some music-related applications. In this paper, a hierarchical framework is presented to automate the task of mood detection from acoustic music data, by following some music psychological theories in western cultures. Three feature sets , intensity, timbre and rhythm, are extracted to represent the characteristics of a music clip. Moreover, a mood tracking approach is...

Well-being and affective style: neural substrates and biobehavioural correlates.

RJ Davidson — 2008-05-22T12:03:44-00:00

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Vol. 359, No. 1449. (29 September 2004), pp. 1395-1411.

One of the most salient features of emotion is the pronounced variability among individuals in their reactions to emotional incentives and in their dispositional mood. Collectively, these individual differences have been described as affective style. Recent research has begun to dissect the constituents of affective style. The search for these components is guided by the neural systems that instantiate emotion and emotion regulation. In this article, this body of research and theory is applied specifically to positive affect and well-being. The central substrates and peripheral biological correlates of well-being are described. A resilient affective style is associated with high levels of left prefrontal activation, effective modulation of activation in the amygdala and fast recovery in response to negative and stressful events. In peripheral biology, these central patterns are associated with lower levels of basal cortisol and with higher levels of antibody titres to influenza vaccine. The article concludes with a consideration of whether these patterns of central and peripheral biology can be modified by training and shifted toward a more salubrious direction.

Neural substrates of processing syntax and semantics in music

Stefan Koelsch — 2005-07-15T22:31:13-00:00

Current Opinion in Neurobiology, Vol. 15, No. 2. (April 2005), pp. 207-212.

Growing evidence indicates that syntax and semantics are basic aspects of music. After the onset of a chord, initial music-syntactic processing can be observed at about 150-400 ms and processing of musical semantics at about 300-500 ms. Processing of musical syntax activates inferior frontolateral cortex, ventrolateral premotor cortex and presumably the anterior part of the superior temporal gyrus. These brain structures have been implicated in sequencing of complex auditory information, identification of structural relationships, and serial prediction. Processing of musical semantics appears to activate posterior temporal regions. The processes and brain structures involved in the perception of syntax and semantics in music have considerable overlap with those involved in language perception, underlining intimate links between music and language in the human brain.

Emotionale Intelligenz.

Daniel Goleman — 2008-04-17T11:46:15-00:00

(01 May 1997)

Cue-evoked firing of nucleus accumbens neurons encodes motivational significance during a discriminative stimulus task.

SM Nicola — 2006-01-10T17:37:07-00:00

J Neurophysiol, Vol. 91, No. 4. (April 2004), pp. 1840-1865.

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) has long been thought of as a limbic-motor interface. Despite behavioral and anatomical evidence in favor of this idea, little is known about how NAc neurons encode information about motivationally relevant environmental cues and use this information to affect motor action. We therefore investigated the firing of these neurons during the performance of a discriminative stimulus (DS) task using simultaneous multiple single-unit recordings in rats. In this task, two stimuli are randomly presented to the animal: a DS, which signals the availability of a sucrose reward contingent on an operant response, and a similar but nonrewarded stimulus (NS). Subpopulations of NAc neurons increased or decreased their firing in association with several distinct components of the task. In this paper, we investigate cue- and operant-responsive neurons. Neurons excited and inhibited by cues showed larger firing changes in response to the DS than the NS and larger changes when the animal made an operant response to the cue than when the animal failed to respond. Excitations during operant responding were not modulated by the information contained by the cue, whereas inhibitions during operant responding were somewhat larger if the operant response occurred during the DS and somewhat smaller if they occurred in the absence of a cue. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the firing of subpopulations of NAc neurons encode both the predictive value of environmental stimuli and the specific motor behaviors required to respond to them.

Nucleus accumbens dopamine release is necessary and sufficient to promote the behavioral response to reward-predictive cues.

SM Nicola — 2006-09-02T22:41:55-00:00

Neuroscience, Vol. 135, No. 4. (2005), pp. 1025-1033.

The nucleus accumbens is part of the neural circuit that controls reward-seeking in response to reward-predictive cues. Dopamine release in the accumbens is essential for the normal functioning of this circuit. Previous studies have shown that injection of dopamine receptor antagonists into the accumbens severely impairs an animal's ability to perform operant behaviors specified by predictive cues. Furthermore, excitations and inhibitions of accumbens neurons evoked by such cues are abolished by inactivation of the ventral tegmental area, the major dopaminergic input to the accumbens. These results indicate that dopamine is necessary to elicit neural activity in the accumbens that drives the behavioral response to cues. Here we show that accumbens dopamine release is causal to the rats' reward-seeking behavioral response by demonstrating that dopamine in this structure is both necessary and sufficient to promote the appropriate behavioral response to reward-predictive cues.

Destruction of intrinsic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus disrupts the classical conditioning of autonomic but not behavioral emotional responses in the rat.

J Iwata — 2006-08-02T05:01:25-00:00

Brain Res, Vol. 368, No. 1. (12 March 1986), pp. 161-166.

The present study examined whether destruction of intrinsic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus of the rat would disrupt the acquisition of classically conditioned changes in arterial pressure. Ibotenic acid, a cellular toxin which spares axons of passage, was injected bilaterally in the hypothalamus either medial or lateral to the fornix. After 2 weeks the animals were subjected to classical fear conditioning trials involving the presentation of a tone in association with footshock. The next day changes in arterial pressure and emotional behavior elicited by the tone alone were measured. Destruction of intrinsic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus prevented the normal establishment of the arterial pressure conditioned response but did not affect the behavioral response. Unconditioned arterial pressure responses elicited by the tone and shock were not affected. Medial hypothalamic injections had no effect on any of the responses. The location of the lateral hypothalamic cell loss overlapped with the neurons projecting to the autonomic region of the spinal cord. Intrinsic neurons in the lateral hypothalamus therefore appear to be specifically involved in mediating learned cardiovascular adjustments.

Evoked Activity in the Hypothalamus and Amygdala of the Cat in Conditions of Food-Related Motivation and Emotional Tension

I Pavlova — 2005-12-31T13:50:36-00:00

Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology, Vol. 36, No. 2. (February 2006), pp. 131-138.

Features of the coordinated activity functionally identified neurons in the hypothalamus in different motivational-emotional states.

RG Kozhedub — 2006-08-02T04:58:38-00:00

Neurosci Behav Physiol, Vol. 27, No. 2. (r 1997), pp. 137-144.

Coordinated activity of hypothalamic neurons associated with motivational and reinforcing systems were studied in functional states arising from hunger, satiation following food deprivation, "victim" cries, and electrical stimulation of the emotionally positive (lateral hypothalamus, lateral preoptic region) and negative (dorsomedial tegmentum) reinforcing structures of the hypothalamus. Activity characteristics were reflected in the magnitude, sign, and dynamics of correlations, and depended on the ratio of motivational and emotional components of behavior. The reciprocal nature of the statistical significance of the activity of these neurons in conditions in which motivation and emotion dominated indicates that the differentiated motivational and emotional hypothalamic influences in cortical processes during learning are mediated via the coordinated activity of neurons in the motivational and reinforcing systems of the hypothalamus.

Literacy, Emotion and Authority: Reading and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language)

Niko Besnier — 2007-10-18T15:12:00-00:00

(25 August 1995)

In this study Niko Besnier analyzes the transformation of the Polynesian community of Nukulaelae from a nonliterate into a literate society, using a contemporary perspective that emphasizes literacy as a social practice embedded in a socio-cultural context. His case study, which has implications for understanding literacy in other societies, illuminates the relationship between norm and practice, between structure and agency, and between group and individual.

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Steven Pinker — 2007-09-14T08:12:29-00:00

(11 September 2007)

New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books—including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate—have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today's most important and popular science writers. Now, in The Stuff of Thought, Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter. Even the names we give our babies have important things to say about our relations to our children and to society. With his signature wit and style, Pinker takes on scientific questions like whether language affects thought, as well as forays into everyday life—why is bulk e-mail called spam and how do romantic comedies get such mileage out of the ambiguities of dating? The Stuff of Thought is a brilliantly crafted and highly readable work that will appeal to fans of readers of everything from The Selfish Gene and Blink to Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Mind the Gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior?

A Kollmuss — 2007-09-14T01:33:05-00:00

pp. 239-260.

Numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and environmental awareness, and displaying pro-environmental behavior. Although many hundreds of studies have been undertaken, no definitive explanation has yet been found. Our article describes a few of the most influential and commonly used analytical frameworks: early US linear progression models; altruism, empathy and prosocial behavior models; and finally, sociological models. All of the models we discuss (and many of the ones we do not such as economic models, psychological models that look at behavior in general, social marketing models and that have become known as deliberative and inclusionary processes or procedures (DIPS)) have some validity in certain circumstances. This indicates that the question of what shapes pro-environmental behavior is such a complex one that it cannot be visualized through one single framework or diagram. We then analyze the factors that have been found to have some influence, positive or negative, on pro-environmental behavior such as demographic factors, external factors (e.g. institutional, economic, social and cultural) and internal factors (e.g. motivation, pro-environmental knowledge, awareness, values, attitudes, emotion, locus of control, responsibilities and priorities). Although we point out that developing a model that tries to incorporate all factors might neither be feasible nor useful, we feel that it can help illuminate this complex field. Accordingly, we propose our own model based on the work of Fliegenschnee and Schelakovsky (1998) who were influenced by Fietkau and Kessel (1981).

Language as context for the perception of emotion

Lisa Barrett — 2007-07-23T11:42:37-00:00

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 8. (August 2007), pp. 327-332.

In the blink of an eye, people can easily see emotion in another person's face. This fact leads many to assume that emotion perception is given and proceeds independently of conceptual processes such as language. In this paper we suggest otherwise and offer the hypothesis that language functions as a context in emotion perception. We review a variety of evidence consistent with the language-as-context view and then discuss how a linguistically relative approach to emotion perception allows for intriguing and generative questions about the extent to which language shapes the sensory processing involved in seeing emotion in another person's face.

What is connected by mutual gaze?: user's behavior in video-mediated communication

Naoki Mukawa — 2007-12-03T00:30:54-00:00

(2005), pp. 1677-1680.

Video-mediated communication systems such as teleconferencing and videophone have become popular. As with face-to-face communication, non-verbal cues such as gaze, facial expression, head orientation and gestures in visual systems play an important role. Existing systems, however, do not support mutual gaze because the lay-out of the camera and monitor is restricted. Thus, conversations using visual systems differ from those in face-to-face communication. This paper clarifies the problems of the video-mediated system, specifically for comparing the system with communication using eye-contact and with communication using no-eye-contact. This study focuses on the protocol of opening communication, e.g. establishment of a visual-audio link, person identification and confirmation of the acceptance of conversation. We conducted experiments using the two systems. Analysis of recorded video sequences revealed that the system using communication with eye-contact induced behavior similar to the system using face-to-face communication.

Effects of emotion control and task on Web searching behavior

Kyung-Sun Kim — 2008-03-08T21:33:46-00:00

Information Processing & Management, Vol. 44, No. 1. (January 2008), pp. 373-385.

The study investigated how users' emotion control and search tasks interact and influence the Web search behavior and performance among experienced Web users. Sixty-seven undergraduate students with substantial Web experience participated in the study. Effects of emotion control and tasks were found significant on the search behavior but not on the search performance. The interaction effect between emotion control and tasks on the search behavior was also significant: effects of users' emotion control on the search behavior varied depending on search tasks. Profile analyses of search behaviors identified and contrasted the most commonly occurring profiles of search activities in different search tasks. Suggestions were made to improve information literacy programs, and implications for future research were discussed.

Measuring emotion: the Self-Assessment Manikin and the Semantic Differential.

MM Bradley — 2008-01-16T14:47:47-00:00

J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry, Vol. 25, No. 1. (March 1994), pp. 49-59.

The Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) is a non-verbal pictorial assessment technique that directly measures the pleasure, arousal, and dominance associated with a person's affective reaction to a wide variety of stimuli. In this experiment, we compare reports of affective experience obtained using SAM, which requires only three simple judgments, to the Semantic Differential scale devised by Mehrabian and Russell (An approach to environmental psychology, 1974) which requires 18 different ratings. Subjective reports were measured to a series of pictures that varied in both affective valence and intensity. Correlations across the two rating methods were high both for reports of experienced pleasure and felt arousal. Differences obtained in the dominance dimension of the two instruments suggest that SAM may better track the personal response to an affective stimulus. SAM is an inexpensive, easy method for quickly assessing reports of affective response in many contexts.

21 Distinctions of Wealth: Attract the Abundance You Deserve

Peggy Mccoll — 2008-05-19T05:41:38-00:00

(01 May 2008)

Everyone wants to know the secret to attracting abundance! However, until now, books on wealth creation have overlooked the powerful forces available inside each of us that we can harness and direct in order to manifest the abundance we desire and deserve. This fascinating book clearly explains time-tested principles for creating wealth, providing guidance on how to alter our behaviors and emotions to actually change the nature of our relationship with the powerful stream of abundance that we can tap into at any time. As **Peggy McColl **explains, we can actually transform our energy vibration and send a clear message to the universe that we’re ready to claim our financial birthright. And, best of all, the universe’s response to the modifications we make internally can be startlingly quick! It’s not enough, though, to simply understand what sets apart those who are already enjoying a rich and plentiful life from those who are weighed down by a feeling of lack. Peggy offers practical advice on how to apply the _21 Distinctions of Wealth_ and become a money magnet—starting today.

Emotion recognition system using short-term monitoring of physiological signals

K Kim — 2008-06-18T14:47:58-00:00

Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, Vol. 42, No. 3. (12 May 2004), pp. 419-427.

Abstract A physiological signal-based emotion recognition system is reported. The system was developed to operate as a user-independent system, based on physiological signal databases obtained from multiple subjects. The input signals were electrocardiogram, skin temperature variation and electrodermal activity, all of which were acquired without much discomfort from the body surface, and can reflect the influence of emotion on the autonomic nervous system. The system consisted of preprocessing, feature extraction and pattern classification stages. Preprocessing and feature extraction methods were devised so that emotion-specific characteristics could be extracted from short-segment signals. Although the features were carefully extracted, their distribution formed a classification problem, with large overlap among clusters and large variance within clusters. A support vector machine was adopted as a pattern classifier to resolve this difficulty. Correct-classification ratios for 50 subjects were 78.4% and 61.8%, for the recognition of three and four categories, respectively.

Animation engine for believable interactive user-interface robots

AJN van Breemen — 2008-06-16T12:33:41-00:00

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2004. (IROS 2004). Proceedings. 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on, Vol. 3 (2004), pp. 2873-2878 vol.3.

The iCat is an interactive and believable user-interface robot that performs the role of a "family companion" in home environments. To build this robot, we developed an animation engine that makes it possible to combine multiple interactive robot behaviors with believable robot animations. In order to do this, we build three special software components: 1) animation channels to control the execution of multiple robot behaviors and animations; 2) merging logic to combine individual device events; and 3) a transition filter for smooth blending. We illustrate the usage of the animation engine by describing an application of the iCat during which it speaks to a user while tracking the user's head, performing lip-syncing, doing eye-blinking and showing facial expressions.

Defining emotion concepts

Anna Wierzbicka — 2008-06-11T04:50:30-00:00

Cognitive Science, Vol. 16, No. 4. ( 1992), pp. 539-581.

This article demonstrates that emotion concepts--including the so-called basic ones, such as anger or sadness--can be defined in terms of universal semantic primitives such as [`]good', [`]bad', [`]do', [`]happen', [`]know', and [`]want', in terms of which all areas of meaning, in all languages, can be rigorously and revealingly portrayed. The definitions proposed here take the form of certain prototypical scripts or scenarios, formulated in terms of thoughts, wants, and feelings. These scripts, however, can be seen as formulas providing rigorous specifications of necessary and sufficient conditions (not for emotions as such, but for emotion concepts), and they do not support the idea that boundaries between emotion concepts are "fuzzy." On the contrary, the small set of universal semantic primitives employed here (which has emerged from two decades of empirical investigations by the author and colleagues) demonstrates that even apparent synonyms such as sad and unhappy embody different--and fully specifiable--conceptual structures.

The emotion probe. Studies of motivation and attention.

PJ Lang — 2008-06-09T16:27:25-00:00

The American psychologist, Vol. 50, No. 5. (May 1995), pp. 372-385.

Emotions are action dispositions--states of vigilant readiness that vary widely in reported affect, physiology, and behavior. They are driven, however, by only 2 opponent motivational systems, appetitive and aversive--subcortical circuits that mediate reactions to primary reinforcers. Using a large emotional picture library, reliable affective psychophysiologies are shown, defined by the judged valence (appetitive/pleasant or aversive/unpleasant) and arousal of picture percepts. Picture-evoked affects also modulate responses to independently presented startle probe stimuli. In other words, they potentiate startle reflexes during unpleasant pictures and inhibit them during pleasant pictures, and both effects are augmented by high picture arousal. Implications are elucidated for research in basic emotions, psychopathology, and theories of orienting and defense. Conclusions highlight both the approach's constraints and promising paths for future study.

What's basic about basic emotions?

A Ortony — 2005-03-01T06:44:26-00:00

Psychol Rev, Vol. 97, No. 3. (July 1990), pp. 315-331.

A widespread assumption in theories of emotion is that there exists a small set of basic emotions. From a biological perspective, this idea is manifested in the belief that there might be neurophysiological and anatomical substrates corresponding to the basic emotions. From a psychological perspective, basic emotions are often held to be the primitive building blocks of other, nonbasic emotions. The content of such claims is examined, and the results suggest that there is no coherent nontrivial notion of basic emotions as the elementary psychological primitives in terms of which other emotions can be explained. Thus, the view that there exist basic emotions out of which all other emotions are built, and in terms of which they can be explained, is questioned, raising the possibility that this position is an article of faith rather than an empirically or theoretically defensible basis for the conduct of emotion research. This suggests that perhaps the notion of basic emotions will not lead to significant progress in the field. An alternative approach to explaining the phenomena that appear to motivate the postulation of basic emotions is presented.

What are emotions? And how can they be measured?

Klaus Scherer — 2008-01-30T15:48:00-00:00

Social Science Information, Vol. 44, No. 4. (1 December 2005), pp. 695-729.

Defining "emotion" is a notorious problem. Without consensual conceptualization and operationalization of exactly what phenomenon is to be studied, progress in theory and research is difficult to achieve and fruitless debates are likely to proliferate. A particularly unfortunate example is William James's asking the question "What is an emotion?" when he really meant "feeling", a misnomer that started a debate which is still ongoing, more than a century later. This contribution attempts to sensitize researchers in the social and behavioral sciences to the importance of definitional issues and their consequences for distinguishing related but fundamentally different affective processes, states, and traits. Links between scientific and folk concepts of emotion are explored and ways to measure emotion and its components are discussed. 10.1177/0539018405058216

Emotion representation and physiology assignments in digital systems

Christian Peter — 2006-07-19T04:59:40-00:00

Interacting with Computers, Vol. 18, No. 2. (March 2006), pp. 139-170.

Emotions are of increasing interest to the HCI community. Within the last decade, emotion research in HCI grew from an eccentric hobby of some visionary scientists to a widely accepted field of research. A number of proof-of-concept prototypes and studies have been published, dedicated sensor systems and technology frameworks have been developed, and theoretical considerations have been made. While they all represent a very valuable contribution to this young field of research, they lack a common theoretical basis. Particularly, there exists no applicable model of emotions suitable for designing emotion-aware systems or performing HCI-related emotion studies. However, in order to become a mature discipline, emotion research in HCI needs such a rigorous footing that future work can be based on. In this paper, a suitable approach to structure and represent emotions for use in digital systems is introduced, after a detailed and critical review of widely used emotion models is given and representative study results are discussed. The proposed method meets several requirements of HCI researchers and software developers. It avoids artificial categorisation of emotions, requires no naming of emotional states, is language independent, and its implementation is straightforward. The results of an experiment based on this approach are discussed demonstrating its applicability.

Are facial expressions of emotion produced by categorical affect programs or dynamically driven by appraisal?

KR Scherer — 2008-05-31T15:50:13-00:00

Emotion (Washington, D.C.), Vol. 7, No. 1. (February 2007), pp. 113-130.

The different assumptions made by discrete and componential emotion theories about the nature of the facial expression of emotion and the underlying mechanisms are reviewed. Explicit and implicit predictions are derived from each model. It is argued that experimental expression-production paradigms rather than recognition studies are required to critically test these differential predictions. Data from a large-scale actor portrayal study are reported to demonstrate the utility of this approach. The frequencies with which 12 professional actors use major facial muscle actions individually and in combination to express 14 major emotions show little evidence for emotion-specific prototypical affect programs. Rather, the results encourage empirical investigation of componential emotion model predictions of dynamic configurations of appraisal-driven adaptive facial actions.

Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy.

A Bechara — 2005-11-22T10:50:25-00:00

Science, Vol. 275, No. 5304. (28 February 1997), pp. 1293-1295.

Deciding advantageously in a complex situation is thought to require overt reasoning on declarative knowledge, namely, on facts pertaining to premises, options for action, and outcomes of actions that embody the pertinent previous experience. An alternative possibility was investigated: that overt reasoning is preceded by a nonconscious biasing step that uses neural systems other than those that support declarative knowledge. Normal participants and patients with prefrontal damage and decision-making defects performed a gambling task in which behavioral, psychophysiological, and self-account measures were obtained in parallel. Normals began to choose advantageously before they realized which strategy worked best, whereas prefrontal patients continued to choose disadvantageously even after they knew the correct strategy. Moreover, normals began to generate anticipatory skin conductance responses (SCRs) whenever they pondered a choice that turned out to be risky, before they knew explicitly that it was a risky choice, whereas patients never developed anticipatory SCRs, although some eventually realized which choices were risky. The results suggest that, in normal individuals, nonconscious biases guide behavior before conscious knowledge does. Without the help of such biases, overt knowledge may be insufficient to ensure advantageous behavior.

Probabilistic Assessment of User' s Emotions During the Interaction with Educational Games

C Conati — 2007-05-16T18:31:10-00:00

Applied Artificial Intelligence (2002)

We describe preliminary research on how to monitor a user's emotions and level of engagement during the interaction with educational games. We illustrate how the user's emotional state can be assessed through a probabilistic model that takes into account the context of the interaction, the user's personality and a variety of user's bodily expressions that are known to be directly influenced by emotional reactions. The probabilistic model relies on influence diagrams to flexibly leverage any...

A basic study on dynamic control of facial expressions for Face Robot

H Kobayashi — 2008-06-16T03:56:11-00:00

Robot and Human Communication, 1994. RO-MAN '94 Nagoya, Proceedings., 3rd IEEE International Workshop on (1994), pp. 168-173.

In order to develop an active human interface that realizes heart-to-heart communication between intelligent machine and human being, we've been undertaking the investigation of method for improving the sensibility or KANSEI communication between them. We've already reported the “Face Robot” that has a human-like face and can display facial expressions by using the flexible microactuator driven by air pressure. In this paper, we investigate the method of dynamic control of facial characteristic point movement for expressing time-changing facial expressions on Face Robot. From the facial expressions expressed by human being dynamically, we obtain the timewise movement of facial characteristic points which sequentially change from neutral to one of basic facial expressions. Using these experimental results, we investigate the time-dependent displacement of characteristic points of Face Robot in relation to the electric-valve closing time, and obtain the appropriate electric-valve closing time for each actuator. According to this control method of electric-valve closing time, the dynamic facial expressions expressed by Face Robot can be controlled in a similar way as in human being

MEXI: Machine with Emotionally eXtended Intelligence - A Software Architecture for Behavior Based Handling of Emotions and Drive

ESAU Natascha — 2008-06-16T03:08:58-00:00

This paper describes the robot head MEXI which is able to show artificial emotions by its facial expressions and speech output. The focus of this paper is on MEXIs software architecture. MEXI does not rely on a world model to control and plan its actions like usual goal based agents. Instead MEXI uses its internal state consisting of emotions and drives to control its behavior. Furthermore we extended the behavior based programming paradigm originally developed by Arkin for robot...

Toward a consensual structure of mood.

D Watson — 2008-06-08T22:11:27-00:00

Psychological bulletin, Vol. 98, No. 2. (September 1985), pp. 219-235.

Infant-like Social Interactions between a Robot and a Human Caregiver

Cynthia Breazeal — 2008-06-16T02:06:56-00:00

Adaptive Behavior, Vol. 8, No. 1. (1 January 2000), pp. 49-74.

From birth, human infants are immersed in a social environment that allows them to learn by leveraging the skills and capabilities of their caregivers. A critical pre-cursor to this type of social learning is the ability to maintain interaction levels that are neither overwhelming nor under-stim ulating. In this paper, we present a mechanism for an autonomous robot to regulate the intensity of its social interactions with a human. Similar to the feedback from infant to caregiver, the robot uses expressive displays to modulate the interaction intensity. This mechanism is integrated within a general framework that combines perception, attention, drives, emotions, behavior selection, and motor acts. We present a specific implementation of this architecture that enables the robot to react appropriately to both social stimuli (faces) and non-social stimuli (moving toys) while maintaining a suitable interaction intensity. We present results from both face-to-face interactions and interactions mediated through a toy. Note: This paper was submitted in June, 1998. 10.1177/105971230000800104

Spontaneous vs. posed facial behavior: automatic analysis of brow actions

Michel Valstar — 2008-06-25T14:32:41-00:00

(2006), pp. 162-170.

Evidence for a three-factor theory of emotions

James Russell — 2008-04-08T20:15:05-00:00

Journal of Research in Personality, Vol. 11, No. 3. (September 1977), pp. 273-294.

Two studies provided evidence that three independent and bipolar dimensions, pleasure-displeasure, degree of arousal, and dominance-submissiveness, are both necessary and sufficient to adequately define emotional states. In one study with 200 subjects, 42 verbal-report emotion scales were explored in regression analyses as functions of the three dimensions plus a measure of acquiescence bias. Multiple correlation coefficients showed that almost all of the reliable variance in the 42 scales had been accounted for. The specific definitions provided by these equations were replicated in a second study that employed 300 subjects' ratings of 151 emotion-denoting terms on semantic differential-type scales.

Emotion experience

Nico Frijda — 2005-05-27T18:12:31-00:00

Cognition and Emotion, Vol. 19, No. 4. (June 2005), pp. 473-497.

What is beautiful is usable

N Tractinsky — 2005-04-24T13:15:30-00:00

Interacting with Computers, Vol. 13, No. 2. (December 2000), pp. 127-145.

An experiment was conducted to test the relationships between users' perceptions of a computerized system's beauty and usability. The experiment used a computerized application as a surrogate for an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Perceptions were elicited before and after the participants used the system. Pre-experimental measures indicate strong correlations between system's perceived aesthetics and perceived usability. Post-experimental measures indicated that the strong correlation remained intact. A multivariate analysis of covariance revealed that the degree of system's aesthetics affected the post-use perceptions of both aesthetics and usability, whereas the degree of actual usability had no such effect. The results resemble those found by social psychologists regarding the effect of physical attractiveness on the valuation of other personality attributes. The findings stress the importance of studying the aesthetic aspect of human-computer interaction (HCI) design and its relationships to other design dimensions.

The effects of affective interventions in human-computer interaction

Timo Partala — 2005-04-24T13:15:01-00:00

Interacting with Computers, Vol. 16, No. 2. (April 2004), pp. 295-309.

The present study investigated the psychophysiological effects of positive and negative affective interventions in human-computer interaction during and after the interventions. Eighteen subjects were exposed to pre-programmed mouse delays in an interactive problem-solving task. Following the mouse delays three types of conditions were used: positive or negative interventions given via speech synthesizer, and no intervention. Facial electromyographic responses were recorded from the zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscle sites. These muscles control smiling and frowning, respectively. Smiling activity was significantly higher during the positive than the other conditions. It was also significantly higher after the positive interventions than the no intervention condition. The frowning activity attenuated significantly more after the positive interventions than the no intervention condition. Following the positive interventions the users' problem solving performance was significantly better than after no intervention. In all, the results suggest that both types of affective intervention had beneficial effects over ignoring the user. The results suggest further that positive intervention may be especially useful.

Communicating facial affect: it's not the realism, it's the motion

Sheryl Ehrlich — 2005-05-25T17:24:46-00:00

(2000), pp. 251-252.

Comprehensive database for facial expression analysis

T Kanade — 2006-08-09T14:13:56-00:00

(28-30 March 2000), pp. 46-53.

Within the past decade, significant effort has occurred in developing methods of facial expression analysis. Because most investigators have used relatively limited data sets, the generalizability of these various methods remains unknown. We describe the problem space for facial expression analysis, which includes level of description, transitions among expression, eliciting conditions, reliability and validity of training and test data, individual differences in subjects, head orientation and...

Using a human face in an interface

Janet Walker — 2005-12-15T08:59:43-00:00

(1994), pp. 85-91.

Emotional meaning and expression in animated faces

Isabella Poggi — 2006-08-09T14:06:40-00:00

(2000), pp. 182-195.

How Convincing is Mr. Data's Smile: Affective Expressions of Machines

Christoph Bartneck — 2005-05-25T15:45:24-00:00

User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, Vol. 11, No. 4. (November 2001), pp. 279-295.

Affective Expressions of Machines

C Bartneck — 2006-08-09T14:02:59-00:00

(2001), pp. 189-190.

: Emotions should play an important role in the design of interfaces because people interact with machines as if they were social actors. This paper presents a literature review on affective expressions through speech, music and body language. It summarizes the quality and quantity of their parameters, their recognition accuracy and successful examples of synthesis. Moreover, a model for the convincingness of affective expressions, based on Fogg and Hsiang Tseng (1999), was developed and...