The motivational role of affect in an ecological model

Abstract

Drawing from empirical literature on ecological psychology, affective neuroscience, and philosophy of mind, this article describes a model of affect-as-motivation in the intentional bond between organism and environment. An epistemological justification for the motivating role of emotions is provided through articulating the perceptual context of emotions as embodied, situated, and functional, and positing perceptual salience as a biasing signal in an affordance competition model. The motivational role of affect is pragmatically integrated into discussions of action selection in the neurosciences.

Affect, Belief, and the Arts

“…ta, the Sioux Wakan-tanka, Orenda of the Iroquois, pokunt of the Shoshone, Manitou of the Algonquin, and Nauala of the Kwakiutl peoples, and the early Iranian term Asha, which all served similar functions in the respective societies. It is worthwhile to consider which terms are used now to denote ultimate orders, some possibilities are Nature and Biology, see Gabriel (2021b). and intelligence into a mathematical order subordinated to the principle of sufficient reason regulated by laws and patterns of causation (Tallis, 2018).…”

“…Poetry is then “art in quest of difficult knowledge.” One technique by which literature accomplishes the experience of deeper meanings is the use of metaphor to enrich and offer affectively powerful resonances (Rappaport, 1999 , p. 393) 13 . Analogical thinking is one of the main tools used by empirical psychologists to construct a narrative order out of disparate empirical facts (Gabriel, 2021b ). The mimetic representation of mind through metaphor allows us to see ourselves under such description.…”

“…The elements of direct perception which may mediate sensible truths when applied to the aesthetic intelligibility of art are: affordances, effectivities, imperative representations, social and spatial navigation, and emotional contagion. These processes are all hooked in to affective reactions to the environment in the context of an organism's pursuit of endogenous homeostasis (Damasio, 2019 ; Gabriel, 2021b ). Emotions are manifested as evaluative and expressive actions or dispositions toward objects in the environment.…”

“… 5 Rappaport compares Logos to the ancient Egyptian term Ma'at, the Vedic term Ṛta, the Sioux Wakan-tanka, Orenda of the Iroquois, pokunt of the Shoshone, Manitou of the Algonquin, and Nauala of the Kwakiutl peoples, and the early Iranian term Asha, which all served similar functions in the respective societies. It is worthwhile to consider which terms are used now to denote ultimate orders, some possibilities are Nature and Biology, see Gabriel ( 2021b ). …”

The pragmatic use of metaphor in empirical psychology

“…For example, by virtue of rejecting a disembodied and passive notion of the mind, 4E may be melded to a dynamic (e.g. Chemero, 2011; Colombetti, 2017) or affective approach (Carruthers, 2008; Gabriel, 2021; Proust, 2015). Eventually, models that employ biological metaphors (e.g.…”