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Interaction Between Emotions and Mental Models in Engineering and Design Activities

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Emotional Engineering vol. 2

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Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to describe the interaction between emotions and the preservation of ideas in engineering and design activities. Johnson-Laird’s mental model construct of internal representations is utilized to define cognitive resistance. A description of the interaction between emotions and cognitive resistance is presented. A value function that forecasts a subject’s behavior when confronted with stimuli that are contradictory to his mental model is derived from a reinforcement learning framework. An experimental study has been conducted to validate the theory. The relevant results, confirming the predictions of the value function, are presented.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Meaning that the model only makes sense as a whole; the constituent parts are unimportant and not easily accessible.

  2. 2.

    In the meaning of “functional for survival”.

  3. 3.

    An analogous analysis is warranted in the context of continuous time.

  4. 4.

    In real life, contradictory stimuli may—and often do—extinguish, of course.

  5. 5.

    An important assumption is that all of the relevant history of the environment is represented in each state signal, so that these have Markov properties, and the reinforcement learning framework represents a Markov decision process.

  6. 6.

    This simplification allows us to disregard the non-contradictory stimuli that are usually interspaced between the contradictory stimuli and is allowable for the qualitative discussion in this section.

  7. 7.

    Following [48], we use the term “value function” to denote the expected future rewards if the agent follows a particular set of consecutive actions (a so-called policy).

  8. 8.

    Joy will be used as the general term to describe the positively valenced emotions in this chapter.

  9. 9.

    That is, “to broaden thought-action repertoires and lead to actions that build enduring personal resources” [54].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Weesperzijde 190, 1097 DZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Robert J. de Boer

  2. Delft University of Technology, Landbergstraat 15, 2628 CE, Delft, The Netherlands

    Petra Badke-Schaub

Authors
  1. Robert J. de Boer
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  2. Petra Badke-Schaub
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Correspondence to Robert J. de Boer .

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  1. Stanford University, 228 Hamilton Avenue, Stanford, 94301, California, USA

    Shuichi Fukuda

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de Boer, R.J., Badke-Schaub, P. (2013). Interaction Between Emotions and Mental Models in Engineering and Design Activities. In: Fukuda, S. (eds) Emotional Engineering vol. 2. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4984-2_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4984-2_10

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