The Cognitive Structure of Emotions.

Abstract

REVIEWSthree eliciting conditions, and usually form part of a sequence that arises from different perspectives and changes in the situation as the action or situation unfolds.The authors describe their theory as one of successive differentiation, starting with a topmost division of positive and negative valence.Then, as• more information is processed, "increasingly differentiated emo tional states may result."However, the authors do not mean to produce a temporal or sequential model that traces the flow of information.They describe a logical structure of the emotion space, which encompasses a partially virtual value or appraisal structure represented as a directed structure with several types of linkages: sufficiency, neces sary, facilitative, and inhibitory.The struc ture is always in a dynamic state, as old goals are replaced by new ones or as goal priorities change.Added to this state are standards and attitudes.The latter include tastes, which the authors see as lacking the kind of underlying logical or propositional structure of goals and standards-although they are certainly com plex when one considers the importance of taste as class markers and indicators of social aspirations.Linked to these three components of the appraisal structure are three central intensity variables that are local to the particular groups of emotions and values in the theory: desirability for goals, praisewor thiness for standards, and appealingness for attitudes.Global variables influencing the intensity of emotions across the board include sense of reality, psychological proximity, unexpected ness, and existing level of arousal.The first relates to the experience of "numbing" when faced with enormously tragic circumstances or losses through death.The others.are self-explanatory.The authors discuss the specific emotion types, along with specifications, lexical tokens, variables affecting intensity, and examples, in four middle chapters of the book.In all, the authors give specifications for twenty-two emotion types.This section is followed by a discussion of the theory boundaries in the last chapter.Here the authors suggest some preliminary rules for an artificial intelligence system that would rea son about emotions, rules that would be needed for natural language comprehension,