Emotion

An emotion is a psychological state or process that functions in the management of goals. It is typically elicited by evaluating an event as relevant to a goal; it is positive when the goal is advanced, negative when the goal is impeded. The core of an emotion is readiness to act in a certain way it is an urgency, or prioritization, of some goals and plans rather than others. Emotions can interrupt ongoing action; also they prioritize certain kinds of social interaction, prompting, for instance, COOPERATION or conflict.

The term emotional is often used synonymously with the term affective. Emotions proper usually have a clear relation to whatever elicited them. They are often associated with brief (lasting a few seconds) expressions of face and voice, and with perturbation of the autonomic nervous system. Such manifestations often go unnoticed by the person who has the emotion. A consciously recognized emotion

Lasts minutes or hours. A mood has similar bases to an emotion but lasts longer; whereas an emotion tends to change the course of action, a mood tends to resist disruption. At the longer end of the time spectrum, an emotional disorder, usually defined as a protracted mood plus specific symptoms, lasts from weeks to years. Personality traits, most with an emotional basis, last for years or a lifetime.

In the ordinary world there are three large problems for orchestrating cognitively Based action.

1. Mental models are always incomplete and sometimes incorrect; resources of time and power are always limited.
2. Human beings typically have multiple goals, not all of which can be reconciled.
3. Human beings are those agents who accomplish together what they cannot do alone; hence individual

Goals and plans are typically parts of distributed cognitive systems.

(some terms referred on Keith Oatley)