Facial expressions in response to a highly surprising event exceeding the field of vision: a test of Darwin's theory of surprise

Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.According to the affect program theory of facial displays, the evolutionary core of the human emotion system consists of a small set of discrete emotion mechanisms that comprise motor programs for emotion-specific facial displays. However, research on surprise has found that surprising events often fail to elicit the associated facial expression (widened eyes, raised eyebrows, mouth opening). The present study tested a refined Darwinian account of the facial expression of surprise, according to which surprising events cause widened eyes and raised eyebrows if they exceed the field of vision, as these facial changes increase the visual field and facilitate visual search. To test this hypothesis, we staged a surprising event that engulfed the field of vision: When the participants left the laboratory, they unexpectedly found themselves in a new room, a small chamber with bold green walls and a red office chair. In addition, to explore the role of social context for the expression of surprise, in two of three experimental conditions, a stranger or a friend they had brought to the experiment was sitting on the chair. The results provided no support for the Darwinian account of the facial expression of surprise. A complete expression of surprise was observed in 5% of the participants, and the individual components of the expression were shown only by a minority, regardless of social context. These findings reinforce doubts about the adequacy of affect program theory for the case of surprise

What is an Emotion in the Belief-Desire Theory of Emotion?

Let us assume that the basic claim of the belief-desire theory of emotion is true: What, then, is an emotion? According to Castelfranchi and Miceli (2009), emotions are mental compounds that emerge from the gestalt integration of beliefs, desires, and hedonic feelings (pleasure or displeasure). By contrast, I propose that emotions are affective feelings caused by beliefs and desires, without the latter being a part of the emotion. My argumentation for the causal feeling theory proceeds in three steps. First, I argue that affective feelings should be regarded as components of emotions because this assumption provides the best available explanation of the phenomenal character and the intensity of emotional experiences. Second, I examine the two main arguments for regarding beliefs and desires as emotion components—that doing so is needed to explain the finer distinctions among emotions and their object-directedness—and argue that they are unconvincing: Emotions can be distinguished by referring to their cognitive and motivational causes, and their appearance of object-directedness could be an illusion. Third, I present three objections against the hypothesis that beliefs and desires are components of emotions: This hypothesis fails, at second sight, to explain the directedness of emotions at specific objects; it has difficulty accounting for the duration of emotional reactions caused by the fulfillment of desires and the disconfirmation of beliefs; and there are reasons to question the existence of the postulated emotional gestalts and the process that presumably generates them. The causal feeling theory avoids these problems. I therefore recommend abandoning the belief-desire compound theory of the nature of emotions in favor of the causal feeling theory. However, a partial reconciliation of the two theories is possible with respect to the concept of “affectively tinged” thoughts

Effects of Instrumentality and Personal Force on Deontological and Utilitarian Inclinations in Harm-Related Moral Dilemmas

Moral dilemmas often concern actions that involve causing harm to others in the attempt to prevent greater harm. But not all actions of this kind are equal in terms of their moral evaluation. In particular, a harm-causing preventive action is typically regarded as less acceptable if the harm is a means to achieve the goal of preventing greater harm than if it is a foreseen but unintended side-effect of the action. Likewise, a harm-causing preventive action is typically deemed less acceptable if it directly produces the harm than if it merely initiates a process that brings about the harmful consequence by its own dynamics. We report three experiments that investigated to which degree these two variables, the instrumentality of the harm (harm as means vs. side-effect; Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and personal force (personal vs. impersonal dilemmas; Experiments 2 and 3) influence deontological (harm-rejection) and utilitarian (outcome-maximization) inclinations that have been hypothesized to underly moral judgments in harm-related moral dilemmas. To measure these moral inclinations, the process dissociation procedure was used. The results suggest that the instrumentality of the harm and personal force affect both inclinations, but in opposite ways. Personal dilemmas and dilemmas characterized by harm as a means evoked higher deontological tendencies and lower utilitarian tendencies, than impersonal dilemmas and dilemmas where the harm was a side-effect. These distinct influences of the two dilemma conceptualization variables went undetected if the conventional measure of moral inclinations, the proportion of harm-accepting judgments, was analyzed. Furthermore, although deontological and utilitarian inclinations were found to be largely independent overall, there was some evidence that their correlation depended on the experimental conditions

Übersetzungsvergleich - Übersetzungskritik

Ziel dieser Diplomarbeit ist es, einen Übersetzungsvergleich bzw. eine Übersetzungskritik zweier deutscher Übersetzungen von Tove Janssons Roman Trollvinter zu erstellen. Als Vergleichsobjekte dienen Textstellen aus den jeweiligen Versionen von Winter im Mumintal, die von Dorothea Bjelfvenstam bzw. Brigitta Kicherer übersetzt wurden. Den Beginn der Arbeit bildet eine Einführung in die Entwicklung der schwedischen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur von ihren Anfängen im 16. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart. Im Theorieteil wird die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Übersetzungswissenschaft skizziert und auf die Notwendigkeit von qualitativ hochwertigen Übersetzungen hingewiesen. Es werden Theorien von Friedrich Schleiermacher, Fritz Güttinger und Werner Koller besprochen. Werner Kollers fünf Bezugsrahmen zur Ermittlung des Äquivalenzgrades einer Übersetzung sind mit Basis meiner Übersetzungskritk. Als weitere Grundlage für die Arbeit mit den beiden Zieltexten dienen drei Leitfragen, deren Beantwortung Teil der Übersetzungskritik ist: Bleibt der Stil des Ausgangstextes in den Zieltexten erhalten? Bleibt die doppelte Adressierung des Ausgangstextes in den Zieltextenerhalten? Bleibt die „Stimmung“ des Ausgangstextes in den Zieltexten erhalten? Den Hauptteil der Diplomarbeit bildet die eigentliche Gegenüberstellung der beiden Übersetzungen von Trollvinter. Da neben objektiven Aspekten wie z.B. Übersetzungsfehlern auch subjektive Maßstäbe wie z.B. der Transport der „Stimmung“ im Ausgangstext in den Zieltext in die Kritik einfließen, ist auch das schlussendliche Ergebnis nicht als objektiv und allgemeingültig zu betrachten. Was sich nach eingehenden Vergleichen der beiden Übersetzungen sagen lässt, ist, dass beide dem Originaltext durchaus gerecht werden, wenn auch mit gewissen Abstrichen. Dass es gewisse Veränderungsmöglichkeiten zum Positiven in beiden Übersetzungen gibt, zeigen meine eigenen Übersetzungsvorschläge. Dennoch ist das Bild, dass sich zum Abschluss dieser Diplomarbeit bietet, ein positives. Es zeigt, dass beide Übersetzungen durchaus gut übersetzt und empfehlenswert sind. Für den Leser, der der schwedischen Sprache nicht mächtig ist, bieten sich beide Versionen als Einstieg in Tove Janssons Welt der Mumintrolle an

Vergleichende Untersuchung der bodenbewohnenden Nematodenfauna von mit der Wurzelreblaus (Viteus vitifoliae Fitch) befallenen Weinreben (Vitis spp.)

Comparative study ofthe soil-living nematofauna associated with vine (Vitis spp.) infested with phylloxera (Viteus vitifoliae Fitch)The diversity and the community structure of nematodes, and the correlation between the occurrence of nematodes and the infestation of grapevines (Vitis spp.) with grape phylloxera (Viteus vitifoliae) were studied. Grapevines ungrafted and grafted to different rootstocks were planted and samples of roots and soil were collected at 7 sites in the Austrian vine growing regions Weinviertel, Neusiedlersee, Südburgenland, and Südoststeiermark. The formation of nodosities on rootlets and the nematode fauna were examined. A total of 58 nematode genera (37 families) were found to be associated with grapevines. Mean nematode abundance in the 7 vineyards ranged from 342 to 444 individuals per 100 g soil. Diversity indices, mean evenness, Maturity Index (MI), and Plant Parasite Index (PPI) were nearly identical among sites and no significant differences were found between phylloxera-infested and non-infested rootstocks. Looking at the trophic structure given by feeding types (bacteriovores, carnivores, omnivores, plant parasites, fungivores) the plant parasitic nematodes were the dominant feeding group; they were detected in all vineyards. Helicotylenchus digonicus, Helicotylenchus vulgaris, Paratylenchus spp., Pratylenchus spp., Mesocriconema xenoplax, Tylenchorhynchus dubius and Xiphinema vuittenezi were the most frequent plant parasitic nematodes. Helicotylenchus was the only nematode genera correlated with phylloxera infestation. The genera Helicotylenchus showed significantly higher abundances at rootstocks infested with phylloxera and at some sites its abundance was up to 680 individuals per 100 g soil.

Функції юридичної відповідальності в правовій науці України та Польщі

В статті автор аналізує та порівнює деякі аспекти дослідження функціонального призначення юридичної відповідальності в правовій науці України та Польщі.In article the author analyzes and compares some aspects of research of a legal responsibility functional purpose in a Ukrainian and Polish law theory

Computational Modeling of Emotion: Towards Improving the Inter- and Intradisciplinary Exchange

International audienceThe past years have seen increasing cooperation between psychology and computer science in the field of computational modeling of emotion. However, to realize its potential, the exchange between the two disciplines, as well as the intradisciplinary coordination, should be further improved. We make three proposals for how this could be achieved. The proposals refer to: 1) systematizing and classifying the assumptions of psychological emotion theories; 2) formalizing emotion theories in implementation-independent formal languages (set theory, agent logics); and 3) modeling emotions using general cognitive architectures (such as Soar and ACT-R), general agent architectures (such as the BDI architecture) or general-purpose affective agent architectures. These proposals share two overarching themes. The first is a proposal for modularization: deconstruct emotion theories into basic assumptions; modularize architectures. The second is a proposal for unification and standardization: Translate different emotion theories into a common informal conceptual system or a formal language, or implement them in a common architecture

The Cognitive-Evolutionary Model of Surprise: A Review of the Evidence

Research on surprise relevant to the cognitive-evolutionary model of surprise proposed by Meyer, Reisenzein, and Schützwohl (1997) is reviewed. The majority of the assumptions of the model are found empirically supported. Surprise is evoked by unexpected (schema-discrepant) events, whereas the novelty and the valence of the eliciting events probably do not have an independent effect. Unexpected events cause an automatic interruption of mental processing that is followed by attentional shift and attentional binding to the events, which is often followed by causal and other event analysis processes and by schema revision. The facial expression of surprise postulated by evolutionary emotion psychologists has been found to occur rarely in surprise, for as yet unknown reasons. A physiological orienting response marked by skin conductance increase, heart rate deceleration and pupil dilation has been observed to regularly occur in the standard version of the repetition-change paradigm of surprise induction, but the specificity of these reactions as indicators of surprise is controversial. There is indirect evidence for the assumption that the feeling of surprise consists of the direct awareness of the schema-discrepancy signal, but this feeling, or at least the self-report of surprise, is also influenced by experienced interference. In contrast, facial feedback probably does contribute substantially to the feeling of surprise and the evidence that surprise is affected by the difficulty of explaining an unexpected event is, in our view, inconclusive. Regardless of how the surprise feeling is constituted, there is evidence that it has both motivational and informational effects. Finally, the prediction failure implied by unexpected events sometimes evokes a negative feeling, but there is as yet no convincing evidence that this is always the case, and we argue that even if it were so, this would not be a sufficient reason for regarding this feeling as a component, rather than as an effect of surprise

Molekularbiologische Diagnostik von Pflanzenkrankkeiten

In derAbteilung für Molekularbiologische Diagnose von Pflanzenkrankheiten der AGES werden molekularbiologische Diagnoseverfahren eingesetzt um gesetzliche Kontroll- und Vollzugsaufgaben zu erfüllen, aber auch um Untersuchungen auf pflanzliche Schaderreger für private Kunden durchzuführen. Verwendet werden unterschiedliche PCR Techniken um Phytoplasmen, Bakterien, Pilze, Viren, Viroide, Insekten und Nematoden zu diagnostizieren. Die Vorteile der PCR Techniken werden dargestellt. Stichwörter: PCR, RT-PCR, qPCR, RT-qPCR, DNA-BarcodingMolecular diagnosis of plant diseasesThe Department for Molecular Diagnostics of Plant Diseases of the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) uses molecular diagnostic tools to support control and execution tasks regulated by law, and to test private plant samples for plant pathogens. Different PCR techniques are used to investigate for phytoplasma, bacteria, fungi, virus, viroids, insects and nematods. The advantages of molecular tools are summarized. Keywords: PCR, RT-PCR, qPCR, RT-qPCR, DNA-barcodin