Cognition and Emotion: Interactions

Cognition and Development – Cognition and Emotion

In this course, Dr Dean Burnett (Cardiff University) explores the links between cognition and emotions. In the first lecture, we think about some modern evidence which has presented the interactions between cognition and emotions. In the second lecture, we think about the functions that emotions serve. Next, we think about the role of emotions in memory, including how it influences the storing and retrieval of memories. In the fourth and final lecture, we think about how emotions can influence both day-to-day and more important decision making. Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

Cognition and Emotion: Interactions

In this lecture, we think about some of the modern evidence which has changed our view on the interactions between cognition and emotion, focusing in particular on: (i) defining cognition as the logical and rational conscious thinking process; (ii) defining emotion as the feelings-based subconscious thought process; (iii) the overlap between emotion and cognition, including that cognition evolved from emotions; (iv) the guiding role of emotions, due to the cognitively demanding nature of cognition limiting its breadth of usability; (v) debunking the view that the left brain hemisphere is responsible for logic and the right brain hemisphere is responsible for emotions; (vi) the updated view, that the left brain hemisphere is more involved with ‘big picture’ processing, while the right brain hemisphere is more focused on detail processing; (vii) the triune brain model, which proposes that our brain is split up into human, mammalian (limbic) and reptilian portions; (viii) the assumption that the limbic brain is responsible for emotional functions; (ix) the updated view that dedicating brain regions to specific functions is an oversimplified view; (x) the anterior cingulate cortex, which has roles in emotional processing and how it interacts with cognition; (xi) modern evidence which shows that the anterior cingulate cortex handles emotional and cognitive information on the same neural circuit.