Affective calculus: The construction of affect through information integration over time

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Affective Science

Background:

• Understanding how humans integrate continuous sensory input into unified affective experiences remains a challenge.
• Research on affect has not fully elucidated the mechanisms of integrating diverse information sources into conscious feeling states.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the dynamic representation of sequential evocative input in self-reported affect.
• To model how affective experiences are integrated over time from sensory stimuli and prior affective states.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments involved participants viewing sequentially presented images and reporting affective valence and arousal.
• Models predicting self-reported affect were compared using normative image ratings, physiological responses, and prior affective experience.
• A temporally sensitive averaging mechanism was employed to model affective integration.

Main Results:

• A model incorporating temporally sensitive averaging best predicted self-reported affect.
• Affective integration assigned higher weights to more potent and recent stimuli.
• Both integrated sensory affect and prior affect uniquely contributed to current affective experience.

Conclusions:

• Prior affective state and the integrated affective impact of recent stimuli significantly shape current affective experience.
• Affective experience is dynamically constructed through a weighted averaging of incoming stimuli and past emotional states.
• The findings provide a framework for understanding the integration of sensory information and prior affect in conscious experience.