Emotion: concepts and definitions (and perhaps a declaration)

Emotion: concepts and definitions(and perhaps a declaration) Roddy Cowie (thanking a lot of other people for help, but they’re not to blame) humaine Conceptualising emotion workshop Haifa, May 2007

The challenge of putting into words… • A key intuition behind HUMAINE: • there is a large part of being human • that IT has not engaged with, • and people would benefit if it did. • We indicated roughly what it was in the contract we signed with the EC • for Eurospeak addicts, the TA (= Technical Annex) humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

The challenge of putting what concerns us into words:HUMAINE contracted in the TA to study • “emotion in an inclusive sense rather than in the narrow sense of episodes where a strong rush of feeling briefly dominates a person’s awareness …” • “emotion in the broad sense pervades human communication and cognition. Human beings have positive or negative feelings about most things... These feelings • strongly influence the way they attend, behave, plan, learn and select. • are conveyed e.g. in faces, voices, gestures, and postures; • and people judge others by the way they respond to such signals.” humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

The challenge of putting what concerns us into words • That is an informal way of evoking the domain. We always knew it needed to be spelled out; but • This turns out harder that we thought • Established names exert a magnetic pull – it is hard not to feel your proper task is to elucidate categories we have names for • But this domain doesn’t correspond to the ‘proper’ meaning of any standard word – • so people are pulled towards other domains that do. • And also more important than we thought • to explain to outsiders (who don’t see why IT should bother with emotion in a narrow sense) • to guide us (so we aren’t pulled insidiously into studying emotion in the narrow sense) humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

The challenge of putting what concerns us into words After much trial and error, I offer a proposal • Describes the domain at two levels • Outer bounds (succinct description of domain as whole) • Internal structure (what it takes to describe a part of the domain) • A third level – assembling examples – is in the background • no detail, but examples later. • they are very effective antidote to lapsing into simplified conceptions • Avoids strong commitment to any particular theory • because (with due apologies) the relevant theory isn’t agreed • describing the task shouldn’t be bound to a theory that may prove wrong humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer bounds:Overview We can characterise the domain in several complementary ways • intellectual history • everyday language • dimensions that colour life • states • functions They don’t coincide perfectly, but we don’t need them to. HUMAINE’s case is ‘there’s gold in them thar hills’. • We want to get people into the right broad area, • and looking for the right things - • not to make geological maps of the auriferous formations . humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer bounds:characterising the domain in terms of history The HUMAINE TA is picking up an intuition easily recognisable in Plato: • There is a mode of mental operation that is • not purely rational, • not purely appetitive • Augustine adds not exercise of pure will • Mr Data is a ‘poor man’s version’ People have felt there is an important domain there or thereabouts for millennia: HUMAINE is effectively pointing technologists towards it humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer bounds:characterising the domain in terms of standard labels • ‘Affect’ is a traditional term for Plato’s domain, • but it has become linked to particular theories of the domain • particularly theories implying simple links to biology: • Calling the domain ‘affect’ risks being tied to those theories • Alternatively: HUMAINE is about what separates humans from beings that are totally unemotional • this formulation has a lot of merit • Certainly it identifies a domain of about the right size • studies say we spend very little of our life in truly unemotional states (<10%) • Sadly, ‘emotion’ on its own points to much narrower domains • An obvious approach, but beware the traps. Some senses of stand words point to the right domain, others emphatically don’t. humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer boundscharacterising the domain in terms of dimensions It is centrally concerned with the way human thought uses certain characteristic types of ‘summary’, which can be represented as dimensions. • positive/negative evaluation • power/powerlessness • dynamism/lethargy • predictability/unexpectedness • worth caring about / immaterial There are problems with detail, but the gist is sound & useful for practical directions humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer bounds:characterising the domain in terms of generic states It involves a moderate number of broad kinds of state which make up the alternatives to being unemotional • Different things called ‘emotion’ (emergent, established, suppressed, transitional) • Moods (just feeling, not focused on an object) • Stances (towards people & things) – temporary orientations coloured by evaluations • Bonds – lasting orientations primarily to people • States of control, arousal, seriousness that depart from ‘baseline’ levels We have tried to tighten up this kind of characterisation. It needs a lot more work, but satisfyingly concrete. humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer bounds:characterising the domain in terms of functions Specifically, it involves types of function that are grounded in feeling rather than articulate analysis: • Felt • Appraisal • State • Connection • Expression • Tendency A recent innovation, needing more work • again, satisfyingly concrete • plus, for those who like such things, an acronym – • the ‘FASCET’ domain? humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Outer bounds These do not add up to a single consistent definition of the domain we want to flag. The question is whether jointly, they convey roughly its centre of gravity and scale. Just maybe we could agree that together, • these - • or improved versions we can negotiate - • point near enough for practical purposes to the hills where the gold is? We will revisit in the discussion session. humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

What is the internal structure of the domain: Operationalising What kind of description do you need to represent a part of it at adequately? Since QUB is immersed in data, that becomes: what kind of description would do justice to what we see & hear? Rhiannon crash Intense reaction to events in immediate surroundings. Even so, but massively connected to general & particular, drama & audience 56c glimpse into emotion-laden relationships – grounded in past, still being resolved P3 @ 18.30 Can we try the car? Addressing decisions about future: Massively complex dynamics in a network of linked concepts & stances humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what it takes to describe a part of it The question that drives this section: • what descriptive structures would a machine need • to represent the rudiments of what goes on in material like this? • (meaning, mainly, information it might to avoid getting things seriously wrong) humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what kind of aspiration? An elegant, comprehensive descriptive system • will be an outcome of research, • not a pre-requisite for it My aim is something much less grand • a coarse approximation that protects us against blanking out key areas • a box of descriptive tools we want to have until something better comes along. That seems attainable. humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? Tools to identify different units • Transient ‘episodes’ • Enduring dispositional structures • Global (traits) • Specific (shame over…) • Pervasive sub-units • integrated into complex states & structures humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? • Tools to identify global feelings • (feeling generally positive, aroused, etc) • if they form part of the episode • Tools to describe emotional colouring • particular types of emotional significance • attached to particular elements of the situation • perhaps the self, but not necessarily • perhaps immediate, but not necessarily humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? • Representations based on dimensions • to describe feelings (so called affective) • but also colouring • whatever the psychological reality behind them • Key examples mentioned already • Representations based on appraisal • whichever formulation … • if they form part of the episode humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? • Tools to describe action tendencies • Aristotle ‘impulses’ • Frijda ‘themes’ • Tools to describe modes of cognition & action • eg focus on emotionally salient items • blockage in central executive (Eysenck on anxiety) • Tools to describe expressive behaviours & tendencies • Facial, vocal, gesture, body language • Blushes, flushes, twitches, sweat and tears humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? • Tools to describe impressions of emotion • Loops are integral to emotional episodes • hence and adequate description needs to reflect B’s grasp of A’s emotions • conscious or simply feeding into control; • and A’s description of A’s emotion • (oh dear, I guess I’m a bit irritable today) humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

cognition (including appraisal) Mediating immediate topics (including self) actions about impulses prompting prompting transient feelings immediate trigger signs expressed through stirring up giving rise to to enduring feelings taking account of Background events/ factors recipient moulding about audience enduring concerns Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? • Descriptions of connectedness • implicit already, • but worth making explicit humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? • Category labels • of course – but they are only part of the story • Need to be bound to competent analysis of the conditions for assigning the labels, • which go far beyond diagnosing a particular kind of internal glow. humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Internal structure of the domain: what is in the descriptive toolbox? Is this a full list? • Of course not; • but it helps to set the task of defining a full list, • and it may do useful service in the interim. • At least, beware of lists that cover less Is it intellectually satisfying? • Of course not, • but putting it in order it is a productive challenge humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Closing the loop:What are we saying IT should engage with? The aspects of mental life that are not pure cognition, appetite or will, including emotions, moods, stances, bonds, and altered states of control, arousal and engagement; • These take the form of units on several levels, episodic, enduring, and pervasive, involving some or all of the following components • Global feelings and emotional colouring, • represented in terms of affective dimensions or appraisals; • Distinctive action tendencies, modes of cognition & expression; • Distinctive kinds of impression of relevant people, self & others; • Rich connections to events and people past, present and foreseen • There are distinctive everyday terms to label some of them. • A summary that reflects a large part of this is ‘felt appraisals, states, connections, expressions and tendencies’ humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Closing the loop: The Declaration of Haifa? Can we agree on something like this – and put it out there for the world to assimilate? Of course not – but maybe we can get close. humaineConceptualising emotion workshop Haifa 2007

Emotion: concepts and definitions (and perhaps a declaration)