Psychophysiological Inference: Implications for the Study of Affect and Emotion

在过去的几十年里，生物电子学、成像和信号处理程序以及实验室计算的进步迅速提高了我们记录来自大脑和各种周围生理系统的无创信号的能力，其灵敏度和保真度比以往任何时候都要高。然而，生理信号获取的进展尚未对社会和行为科学的理论和研究产生一致的影响，原因至少有三个：(a)技术考虑不足，(b)信号表示或分析初级，以及(c)基于生理数据的错误推理。为了说明这一点，之前的研究表明，情绪变化之后会出现明显的面部表情模式，但有时在视觉上难以察觉。这些重要的观察结果导致了对情绪背后的生理机制的推断，以及行为科学和社会科学中的心理生理学评估，目的是衡量特定心理事件或过程（例如，焦虑、情绪、群体凝聚力）的存在或程度。然而，除非心理生理关系是同构的，或者两种（或两种以上）理论对生理反应做出了相互矛盾的预测，了解心理/行为变量的变化对生理反应的影响，并不能提供足够的信息来推断心理变量对生理反应的影响。为了说明这一点，研究表明消极情绪会导致内脏或面部肌电图活动的特定模式，但这并不意味着这种身体反应指数模式（例如，在这种消极情绪之前或伴随）。这是因为知道一个陈述为真，在逻辑上并不意味着相反的陈述为真。目前的研究将使用设计来避免这些问题的范式来检查涉及情感的社会、心理和生理过程。因此，这项研究既应该为重要的社会和行为过程建立新的心理生理学研究范式，也应该对现有的情绪理论进行更适当的检验。//

Advances in bioelectronics, imaging and signal processing procedures, and laboratory computing over the past several decades have rapidly increased our ability to record signals noninvasively from the brain and various peripheral physiological systems with greater sensitivity and fidelity than ever before. Nevertheless, advances in physiological signal acquisition have not yet had a consistent impact on theory and research in the social and behavioral sciences for at least three reasons: (a) insufficient technical considerations, (b) elementary signal representation or analysis, and (c) fallacious reasoning based on physiological data. To illustrate, previous research has revealed that variations in emotion are followed by distinct but sometimes visually imperceptible patterns of facial expression. These important observations have led to inferences about the physiological mechanisms underlying emotion, and to psychophysiological assessments within the behavioral and social sciences for the purpose of gauging the presence or extent of a particular psychological event or process (e.g., anxiety, emotion, group cohesion). However, except in instances in which the psychophysiological relationship is isomorphic or in which two (or more) theories make competing predictions about the physiological response, knowledge of the effects of variations in psychological/behavioral variables on a physiological response does not provide sufficient information for a strong inference about the psychological variable given this physiological response. To illustrate, research showing that a negative emotion leads to a particular pattern of visceral or facial electromyographic activity does not imply that this pattern of bodily response indexes (e.g., was preceded or accompanied by) this negative emotion. This is because knowledge that a statement is true does not imply logically that the converse is true. The current research will examine the social, psychological, and physiological processes involved in emotion using paradigms designed to avoid these problems. This research, therefore, should both establish a new paradigm or psychophysiological inquiry on important social and behavioral processes and yield more appropriate tests of existing theories of emotion.//