Greg Detre
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
how are emotions generated? what role do they play in cognition?
Damasio
primary emotion
pre-wired, immediate response, doesn�t require recognition of what caused it, or of having it
secondary emotion
reaction to cognitive state which triggers primary emotions, often due to previous associations of objects and emotions
as-if mechanism � simulate the state, without actually changing your body state
evaluation vs interpretation
routine seems to contain a large proportion of all learned/non-instinctive behaviour
unclear what the routine level is exactly for � the language example is confusing
they don�t like the co-existing positive and negative affect example/discussion
Deb: can you have both positive and negative affect for the same thing for the same reason � by definition, surely no?
Kai-yuh � parallel threads/timeslicing emotional execution
does it have to be the same thing and the same reason???
as soon as you add semantic content to emotion, the dimensionality gets infinite
emotional terms refer to phenomena at different levels of analyisis and complexity
behavioural patterns (fear)
motivations/desires (lust, jealousy)
physiological/neurological (pain)
emotions might be emergent
properties of cognitive processing rather than explicit in the system
is this a real difference or a semantic one?
they don�t have to be useful
just because you can pretty much measure it with an explicit variable doesn�t meant that that variable exists
Deb: there should always be a distinction between description and explanation, unless you�re at (pretty much) the lowest level (e.g. theoretical physicists)
caution vs proto-caution � difficult to differentiate from outside
cautious because you expect something bad, as opposed to direct reaction to stimuli
where does ToM fit into this 3-level architecture?
Minsky: self-reflective vs reflective
they only gave poor, B-brain examples for the reflective level
you need some means to devolve things down levels when they become automaticised, right???
Bruce: doesn�t like layered architectures
what about his paper???
Agre, Horswell � everyday life being
essentially routines phased in and out
how many new things have you done today (see Introduction to Agre�s book, 1997)
�your Cheerios aren�t going to kill you� � you can get away for the most part with bumbling through life without too much imaginative/forethought
bias: cognition as planning (Miller, 1960s)
Bruce: Ptolemy/Brahi(???) elaborate model for why some planets appear to move backwards � but then the Copernican rotation around the sun explained it much more simply. is there a way of simplifying/cutting through the huge inter-connectivity that Sloman proposes?
Brooks liked to watch people watch his robot
the robot would keep bumping into a wall in a loop � �what a stupid robot�
add a faster CPU, it did the same thing faster � �boy, it�s angry�
controllability (x) against predictability (y)
top left � anxiety
bottom right � depression
top right � elation
bottom right � frustration
these axes: the system believes that it can predict / control
most of these affective axes aren�t orthogonal
he invented the confocal microscope
model six � id, ego + super-ego
role-model vs imprimer?
seem to point to different criteria for attachment???
"the speed with which a person responded to an infant and the intensity of the interaction in which he engaged with that infant." Bowlby
"those who admire us, those whom we admire, those by whom we wish to be admired, those with whom we are competing, and those opinion of us we respect." Aristotle (Rhetoric 2, 6.)
we sort of choose our role-modles
Hugo: role-model implies someone you want to be like � but you don�t necessarily want to be like someone you attach to (e.g. abusive) � hmmm
he hates baggage from words, so likes neologisms
Kai-Yuh: negative imprints too?
Kai-Yuh: oxytosin � anti-depressant � related to imprinting and familiarity
gamut of imprimers:
caregivers, non-caregivers (peers, girlfriends), non-acquaintances (mentors, celebrities), fictional, groups with strong idenities (cults, military), any strong identity (doctrines, creeds)
this is over-extending the theory
internalising absent imprimers and have virtual interactions with them as mental critics
Hugo: these are constructed as Simulation Theories of Mind
at the same level as representations of ourselves, and so they have more access to and influence upon self-models
what does Minsky mean by �elevating� a goal???
lifting it up the hierarchy
giving it higher urgency (in the Copycat sense)
Hugo: Common sense as the Social Norm Imprimer � hmmmm
empirically/psychologically verifiable
major complaint: Andrea: no mechanism for learning the goals
Daphna: what if just getting praise is your goal?
Bruce: �less code, more fulfilling�
weird 24 hour analogue clock � does the minute hand miss out the left half???
no, you have to ignore the numbers for the minute hand � it just goes round in a normal circle
Minsky �internal grounding�???
learned helplessness