Anticipation and emotion

This work tries to provide a systematic outline of the manifold relations between emotion and anticipatory activity. We first address the route from emotion to anticipation, which implies considering the anticipatory function of emotion in a twofold sense. On the one hand, emotions may mediate the relationship between a stimulus and a response, by triggering forms of anticipatory behavior which are not based on cognitive representations of future states or events (preparatory emotions). On the other hand, emotions may accomplish the function of signalling underlying mental states (premonitory emotions), that is, the fact of experiencing a certain emotion may induce some anticipatory belief. Then we address the route from anticipation to emotion, by considering those emotional states which are elicited by anticipatory representations (expectation-based emotions). Whereas in premonitory emotions the latter induce some expectation, in expectation-based emotions the causal relationship is reversed: the expectation of a certain event elicits an emotional response. Here we are in the domain of cognitive appraisal proper, with the sole restriction that the appraisal regards future events. Moreover, the route from anticipation to emotion also accounts for those emotions - such as disappointment and relief - which are elicited by the invalidation of expectations (invalidation-based emotions). Finally we discuss a third class of interaction between emotion and anticipatory activity, that is, the anticipation of future emotions. Emotions are here the object of anticipatory representations, rather a response to them. Two kinds of expected emotions are identified: "cold" expectations versus "hot" expectations of emotions (which include some anticipated feeling), and their role in decision-making is discussed.