How Emotion Impacts Attention And Cognition

is effective in examining how emotion impacts attention and cognition

Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always univalent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory (LTM) retention, depending on a range of factors.

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The impact of emotion on perception and attention

The attentional dependence of emotion cognition is variable with the competing task. When the competing task is irrelevant to emotion, both the emotional and competing tasks could be performed well. Otherwise, the performance would be impaired.

Emotional information can be processed in parallel with other stimuli, and there may be a specific channel in the human brain for processing emotional information.

However, when both the central and peripheral tasks were both emotional face discrimination, subjects could not perform well in the peripheral task, indicating that the processing of emotional information required attentional resources and that it is a type of controlled processing.

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The impact of emotion on learning and memory

Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always univalent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory (LTM) retention, depending on a range of factors.

The role of emotion in learning and memory

The impact of emotion on learning processes is the focus of many current studies. Although it is well established that emotions influence memory retention and recall, in terms of learning, the question of emotional impacts remains questionable. Some studies report that positive emotions facilitate learning and contribute to academic achievement, being mediated by the levels of self-motivation and satisfaction with learning materials. Conversely, a recent study reported that negative learning-centered state (confusion) improves learning because of an increased focus of attention on learning material that leads to higher performances on post tests and transfer tests. Confusion is not an emotion but a cognitive disequilibrium state induced by contradictory data. A confused student might be frustrated with their poor understanding of subject matter, and this is related to both the SEEKING and RAGE systems, with a low level of activation of rage or irritation, and amplification of SEEKING. Hence, motivated students who respond to their confusion seek new understanding by doing additional cognitive work. Further clarification of this enhances learning. Moreover, stress, a negative emotional state, has also been reported to facilitate and/or impair both learning and memory, depending on intensity and duration. More specifically, mild and acute stress facilitates learning and cognitive performance, while excess and chronic stress impairs learning and is detrimental to memory performance. Many other negative consequences attend owing to overactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which results in both impaired synaptic plasticity and learning ability. Nonetheless, confounding influences of emotions on learning and memory can be explained in terms of attentional and motivational components. Attentional components enhance perceptual processing, which then helps to select and organize salient information via a "bottom-up" approach to higher brain functions and awareness. Motivational components induce curiosity, which is a state associated with psychological interest in novel and/or surprising activities (stimuli). A curiosity state encourages further exploration and apparently prepares the brain to learn and remember in both children and adults. The term "surprising" might be conceptualized as an incongruous situation (expectancy violation) refers to a discrepancy between prior expectations and the new information; it may drive a cognitive reset for "learned content" that draws one’s attention.

The role of emotion in memory

Neuroimaging studies have indicated that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex cooperate with the medial temporal lobe in an integrated manner that affords (i) the amygdala modulating memory consolidation; (ii) the prefrontal cortex mediating memory encoding and formation; and (iii) the hippocampus for successful learning and LTM retention. We also review the nested hierarchies of circular emotional control and cognitive regulation (bottom-up and top-down influences) within the brain to achieve optimal integration of emotional and cognitive processing. This review highlights a basic evolutionary approach to emotion to understand the effects of emotion on learning and memory and the functional roles played by various brain regions and their mutual interactions in relation to emotional processing. We also summarize the current state of knowledge on the impact of emotion on memory and map implications for educational settings. In addition to elucidating the memory-enhancing effects of emotion, neuroimaging findings extend our understanding of emotional influences on learning and memory processes; this knowledge may be useful for the design of effective educational curricula to provide a conducive learning environment for both traditional "live" learning in classrooms and "virtual" learning through online-based educational technologies.

The role of emotion in perception and attention

The relationship between emotion and attention has fascinated researchers for decades. Many previous studies have used eye-tracking, ERP, MEG, and fMRI to explore this issue but have reached different conclusions: some researchers hold that emotion cognition is an automatic process and independent of attention, while some others believed that emotion cognition is modulated by attentional resources and is a type of controlled processing. The present research aimed to investigate this controversy, and we hypothesized that the attentional dependence of emotion cognition is variable with the competing task. Eye-tracking technology and a dual-task paradigm were adopted, and subjects’ attention was manipulated to fixate at the central task to investigate whether subjects could detect the emotional faces presented in the peripheral area with a decrease or near-absence of attention. The results revealed that when the peripheral task was emotional face discrimination but the central attention-demanding task was different, subjects performed well in the peripheral task, which means that emotional information can be processed in parallel with other stimuli, and there may be a specific channel in the human brain for processing emotional information. However, when the central and peripheral tasks were both emotional face discrimination, subjects could not perform well in the peripheral task, indicating that the processing of emotional information required attentional resources and that it is a type of controlled processing. Therefore, we concluded that the attentional dependence of emotion cognition varied with the competing task.

The role of emotion in decision-making

According to the rational worldview, we base our decisions on logic: Whenever we are faced with a choice, we evaluate the options, weigh the possible consequences and their probabilities, and then choose the option with the highest utility. However, recent research has shown that emotion is central to the decision-making process, both as an input and an output. Decisions and their consequences result in emotions (such as joy, relief, regret, or disappointment), and many of our choices are guided by the experience of these emotions or the anticipation of the emotions that may be elicited.

Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. Emotion has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always univalent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory (LTM) retention, depending on a range of factors.

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Individual differences in emotion-attention interactions

Emotion-attention interactions involve interplays between affective and executive brain systems. Individual differences (age, sex, personality) can modulate emotion and attention. Maladaptive emotion-attention interactions are common in affective disorders. Training and interventions can optimize emotion-attention interactions.

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Training and interventions to optimize emotion-attention interactions

Training attention to regulate emotion has been a subject of interest in the field of psychology. Empirical studies have linked negative attentional biases with attentional dysfunction and negative moods. However, there has been less focus on how attentional deployment can be an adaptive strategy that regulates emotional experience.

Attention as a Tool for Emotion Regulation

According to William James, attention is a valuable instrument that helps select, bring into focus, and magnify the stimuli experienced in the world. Attention can be used as a tool to hone specific aspects of experience, without which, one would be lost in superfluous information. Attentional processes can be regulated consciously or automatically.

Selective Attention and Affect

Selective attention has evolved as a mechanism to filter the plethora of sensory stimuli in the environment. As attentional resources are limited, the stimuli that capture attention direct future choices and behaviours. The link between affect and attention is bidirectional. While affect impacts attention, regulating attention also influences affect.

Training Attention to Improve Emotion Regulation

Several types of attentional training (AT) methodologies have been developed to improve emotion regulation. These include:

  • Cognitive gaze training tasks: Dot-probe and visual search training tasks train individuals to either implicitly or automatically reorient their attention towards certain affective stimuli.
  • Clinical attention training methods: Clinical AT methods involve disengaging attention from negative emotional information and reorienting it towards processing neutral information.
  • Meditative attention training methods: Secular meditative training can be categorized into focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM). FA involves voluntarily directing sustained attention on a specific object, while OM involves cultivating awareness in the absence of any attentional focus.

A Model of Attention Training Methods

A functional attention training model of attention-based emotion regulation strategies and how these strategies might be modified by training has been proposed. The model integrates AT methods with attentional substrates and the emotion regulation processes and outcomes that training may modify. It clarifies and informs issues regarding how selective attention influences affect and provides a common and unified nomenclature for cognitive, social, and clinical researchers.

The model identifies three types of attention networks: alerting, orienting, and executive control. It also identifies similar attentional constructs such as attentional selection and scanning, which fall under the orienting network.

The model categorizes AT methods into three groups based on Gross's (1998) three primary strategies of attentional deployment: concentration, distraction, and rumination. Concentration and insight meditative practices correspond with the strategy of attentional concentration, while dot-probe training and visual search training fall under the strategy of attentional distraction. Clinical auditory attention training (ATT) incorporates aspects of distraction and concentration, and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) seems to fit the strategy of rumination.

The model also includes a distinction between the cognitive effort required for the acquisition of a strategy and the effort required for the execution of a regulatory strategy. Strategies based on distraction may require less effort to acquire and execute relative to strategies based on concentration.

Training Gaze Patterns

Training gaze patterns involve behavioural tasks that train individuals' gaze patterns. These tasks include dot-probe, flanker, and emotional Stroop tasks, which train individuals to either implicitly or automatically reorient their attention towards certain affective stimuli.

Clinical Training Methods

Clinical AT methods involve disengaging attention from negative emotional information and reorienting it towards processing neutral information. These methods are particularly useful for individuals with emotional disorders who exhibit dysfunctional information processing, such as attentional patterns towards maladaptive information and high self-focused attention.

Meditative Attention Training Methods

Meditative attention training methods include focused attention (FA) and open monitoring (OM). FA involves voluntarily directing sustained attention on a specific object, while OM involves cultivating awareness in the absence of any attentional focus. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and loving-kindness meditation (LKM) are two popular meditative practices that have been found to improve emotion regulation.

Limitations and Challenges of AT Methodologies

There are several limitations and challenges to the development of effective AT methodologies:

  • Determining the effective duration of training: AT paradigms can range from a single session to multiple sessions across weeks of training.
  • Developing positive AT stimuli: Positive images inherently have lower average arousal than negative images, which may make it difficult for individuals with depressive or anxiety disorders to orient their attention towards this type of positive information.
  • Keeping interventions salient and interesting: Refining and creating new AT paradigms that are interesting to participants, such as integrating training paradigms into virtual reality (VR) worlds or developing video games that modify specific attentional processes.

Training attention can be a critical tool for promoting emotion regulation. While there are challenges and limitations to the development of effective AT methodologies, the evidence presented in this paper suggests that attentional deployment may be a critical tool for regulating emotion, and that training attention may lead to an upward spiral of positivity.

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Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions

Emotions are a complex set of interactions between subjective and objective variables that are mediated by neural and hormonal systems. They can give rise to affective experiences of emotional valence (pleasure-displeasure) and emotional arousal (high-low activation/calming-arousing). They generate cognitive processes such as emotionally relevant perceptual affect, appraisals, and labeling processes. They activate widespread psychological and physiological changes to the arousing conditions. They motivate behaviour that is often but not always expressive, goal-directed, and adaptive.

Emotion has a substantial influence on the cognitive processes in humans, including perception, attention, learning, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving. It has a particularly strong influence on attention, especially modulating the selectivity of attention as well as motivating action and behavior. This attentional and executive control is intimately linked to learning processes, as intrinsically limited attentional capacities are better focused on relevant information. Emotion also facilitates encoding and helps retrieval of information efficiently. However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always univalent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory (LTM) retention, depending on a range of factors.

Recent neuroimaging findings have indicated that the amygdala and prefrontal cortex cooperate with the medial temporal lobe in an integrated manner that affords (i) the amygdala modulating memory consolidation; (ii) the prefrontal cortex mediating memory encoding and formation; and (iii) the hippocampus for successful learning and LTM retention.

We also review the nested hierarchies of circular emotional control and cognitive regulation (bottom-up and top-down influences) within the brain to achieve optimal integration of emotional and cognitive processing. This review highlights a basic evolutionary approach to emotion to understand the effects of emotion on learning and memory and the functional roles played by various brain regions and their mutual interactions in relation to emotional processing. We also summarize the current state of knowledge on the impact of emotion on memory and map implications for educational settings. In addition to elucidating the memory-enhancing effects of emotion, neuroimaging findings extend our understanding of emotional influences on learning and memory processes; this knowledge may be useful for the design of effective educational curricula to provide a conducive learning environment for both traditional “live” learning in classrooms and “virtual” learning through online-based educational technologies.

Frequently asked questions

Emotion can affect attention in several ways. For example, fear can guide attention to threatening stimuli, and positive moods can encourage a global perceptual style. In addition, emotions can make relevant stimuli easier to see and can alter the perception of spatial layout.

Emotion can affect cognition by influencing memory and decision-making. For example, emotion can enhance or impair memory, and it can also guide decision-making by providing information about the value and importance of objects and events.

Emotion can influence learning by enhancing or impairing memory. For instance, positive emotions can facilitate learning, while negative emotions can impair it.

Emotion can affect memory by enhancing or impairing it. For example, emotional events are remembered more clearly, accurately, and for longer periods of time than neutral events.

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