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New and Improved, but Still Cold and Symbolic

Department of Psychology, University of California, USA, pwinkiel{at}ucsd.edu

My commentary applauds the authors' cognitive framework for capturing the inferential complexity and flexibility of emotion processing. The framework offers generative powers, as demonstrated by new studies, and an insightful perspective on classic studies. However, at the core, the framework is still symbolic and cold—reflecting its origins in amodal views of the mind. This leads to two troubles. First, the framework cannot incorporate evidence for embodied, modal processing of emotion. Second, the framework overemphasizes conceptual and conscious processing, leading to dismissal of unconscious emotion. I question whether simply updating a symbolic cognitive framework is sufficient to capture the recent empirical and theoretical developments in emotion research. It might be time for a new modal and embodied theory of emotion.

Key Words: consciousness • embodiment • emotion • symbolic

References

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• Ortony, A., Clore, G.L., & Collins, A. (1988). The cognitive structure of emotions. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Winkielman, P., Berridge, K.C., & Wilbarger, J.L. (2005). Emotion, behavior, and conscious experience: Once more without feeling. In L. Feldman-Barrett, P. Niedenthal, & P. Winkielman (Eds.), Emotion and consciousness (pp. 335-362). New York: Guilford.
• Winkielman, P., & Schooler, J. (2008). Unconscious, conscious, and meta-conscious in social cognition. In F. Strack & J. Förster (Eds.), Social cognition: The basis of human interaction (pp. 49-69). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

Emotion Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 55-56 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1754073908097186


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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Winkielman, P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?