Recognition of Affective Faces of Different Age Groups

It has been found that valence and arousal are the core affect dimensions in emotional structure. In this study, we hypothesized that there might be differences between different age groups in emotional structure using six facial expression stimuli (angry, disgusted, fearful, neutral, happy, and sad) of three age groups (young, middle-aged, and old). Unlike previous studies asking participants to rate subjective ratings or similarities between stimuli, participants in this study were required to determine whether stimulus pairs were the same or different emotions and reaction time and accuracy were measured for further analyses. We assumed that it would be harder when the stimulus pair is similar whereas it would be easier when the pair is different. The results showed that for the same emotion pair condition, the sad-sad pair had the lowest accuracy and the longest reaction time, while the happiness-happiness pair had the highest accuracy and the shortest reaction time. For the different emotion pairs, angry-disgusted and disgusted-sad was the lowest accuracy and the longest reaction time. For age of the stimuli effect, responses to the old faces had the lowest accuracy and the longest reaction time. The results suggest that identification of emotional stimuli might be affected by emotion category and age. Further study may need to recruit various age groups, because participants in the current study were mostly young adults.

Quantum Core Affect. Process-Semantic Theory of Emotions

The paper describes model of human affect based on quantum theory of semantics. The model considers emotion as subjective representation of behavioral context relative to a basis binary choice, organized by cyclical process structure and an orthogonal evaluation axis. The resulting spherical space, generalizing well-known circumplex models, accommodates basic emotions in specific angular domains. Predicted process-semantic structure of affect is observed in the word2vec data, as well as in the previously obtained spaces of emotion concepts. The established quantum-theoretic structure of affective space connects emotion science with quantum models of cognition and behavior, opening perspective for synergetic progress in these fields.

A Qualitative Analysis of Affect Signs in Telecommunication Dialogues

There is growing evidence in the science of psychology that affective phenomena are not homogeneous and that their manifestations may vary across cultures and under the influence of contextual and demographic factors. Given that there is no clear universal expression of emotions and mood in human behavioral processes, it is necessary to continue to study the heterogeneity of the observed features in language and speech. This qualitative study analyzes the dialogues of 40 individuals in the field of telecommunications and, using a content analysis and phenomenological approach, describes lexical and non-lexical signs that could indicate features of affect. It can be observed that complete saturation has not been obtained within the framework of these data, which may indicate a wide variation of verbal and non-verbal affect features at both intra-individual and inter-individual levels and indicate different possible dialects of affect features. In addition, inter-rater reliability was determined and its results suggest that the determination of affective features may be subjective, contextual, in the absence of predefined reference criteria even in valence and activation dimensions of core affect.

Prediction of Depression by Cognitive Function Above Core Affect

The association between depression and cognitive function has been observed in a large number of studies, but there are no clear and robust mechanisms for this association. The aim of this study was to investigate how cognitive functions (working memory inhibition, executive functions cognitive control and psychomotor speed) in one model predict depression above current core affect in a sample of healthy individuals. The study involved 275 adults aged between 20 and 59 years (male 32.7%) and used the depression scale from DASS-42 questionnaire, the Swedish Core affect scale, and the cognitive function task battery. The results of hierarchical regression analysis suggest that the depression is more significantly explained after controlling core affect by the working memory storage, inhibition, and executive function cognitive control processes, when performing several tasks with different valence words. This suggests that even in healthy individuals, there may be a significant association between depressive symptoms and cognitive function after controlling current core affect state which may fluctuate and not be reflected in the retrospective assessment.

Valuing what happens: a biogenic approach to valence and (potentially) affect

Valence is half of the pair of properties that constitute core affect, the foundation of emotion. But what is valence, and where is it found in the natural world? Currently, this question cannot be answered. The idea that emotion is the body's way of driving the organism to secure its survival, thriving and reproduction runs like a leitmotif from the pathfinding work of Antonio Damasio through four book-length neuroscientific accounts of emotion recently published by the field's leading practitioners. Yet while Damasio concluded 20 years ago that the homeostasis–affect linkage is rooted in unicellular life, no agreement exists about whether even non-human animals with brains experience emotions. Simple neural animals—those less brainy than bees, fruit flies and other charismatic invertebrates—are not even on the radar of contemporary affective research, to say nothing of aneural organisms. This near-sightedness has effectively denied the most productive method available for getting a grip on highly complex biological processes to a scientific domain whose importance for understanding biological decision-making cannot be underestimated. Valence arguably is the fulcrum around which the dance of life revolves. Without the ability to discriminate advantage from harm, life very quickly comes to an end. In this paper, we review the concept of valence, where it came from, the work it does in current leading theories of emotion, and some of the odd features revealed via experiment. We present a biologically grounded framework for investigating valence in any organism and sketch a preliminary pathway to a computational model. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Basal cognition: conceptual tools and the view from the single cell’.

Affect, Attention, and Episodic Performance

Any individual’s work performance can vary from day to day and even over the course of a single day. Traditional, static models of job performance that focus on modeling between-person differences in job performance can provide only an incomplete picture of work-performance processes. In this article, we explore within-person variability in performance and its association with changing emotional states and attentional resources. First, the notion of performance episodes is introduced as a useful unit for modeling within-person performance across the workday. Second, we explore the emotion–performance link and show that affective states influence work performance by impacting the attentional resources dedicated to the task. Finally, the variability in affective experiences is discussed in terms of core affect and emotion episodes and their unique effect on individuals’ attention and regulatory resources. The results describe a generalized model of work performance that is influenced by co-occurring affective states and fluctuating attentional resources.