Can Feelings "Feel" Wrong? Similarities Between Counter-Normative Emotion Reports and Perceptual Errors

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Decision Science

Background:

• Emotions are popularly considered subjective and lacking objective truth value.
• This study investigates if subjective emotion reports align with objective error markers seen in cognitive tasks.
• The research explores the neural and behavioral correlates of reporting counter-normative emotions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare behavioral and brain responses to counter-normative emotion reports with those of perceptual-decision errors.
• To determine if objective error-detection mechanisms apply to subjective emotional experiences.
• To investigate the validity of analyzing emotion reports using error-detection frameworks.

Main Methods:

• Participants completed two tasks: reporting emotions to images and making perceptual decisions (gender identification).
• Behavioral data analyzed included reaction times, accuracy, and post-error adjustments.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to examine neural correlates, specifically error-related negativity.

Main Results:

• Both counter-normative emotion reports and perceptual-decision errors exhibited post-error slowing.
• Speed/accuracy trade-offs were observed in both types of responses.
• Reaction time distributions showed similar patterns for errors and counter-normative emotion reports.
• Electroencephalography data provided inconclusive evidence for error-related negativity in emotion reporting.

Conclusions:

• The behavioral and neural signatures of reporting counter-normative emotions closely resemble those of perceptual-decision errors.
• This suggests that subjective emotion reporting may be amenable to objective analysis, similar to cognitive decision-making.
• The findings challenge the notion that emotions are purely subjective, indicating potential for objective truth-value assessment.