Affective Factors: A Model of Cognition Under Emotional States

Abstract

A range of aversive emotions, such as fear, anger and surprise, are automatically triggered when humans engage in mission critical tasks or operate in risky environments. These emotions modulate human cognition and behavior to protect and prevent from any harm being inflicted on them. Emotion accomplishes this by drawing attention to stimuli with emotional valence and by prioritizing the manner and order in which information processing occurs. It is known from research done in the neurosciences and social psychology that emotional states alter the cognitive processes non-consciously, well before the feelings of an emotion are perceived in the consciousness. Human information processing models, which inform and guide human factors research and practice, have not accounted for emotions. This paper presents a framework as to how emotions could be integrated into human information processing models. It does this by first demonstrating the primacy of emotional modulation of cognition, and its applicability to the field of human factors, particularly to the design of human-machine systems in mission critical domains.