Context binding in human thought

Tired, Hot, and Thirsty

Recent studies, particularly those using brain imaging, have begun to
probe the influence of emotional states, such as the dread that builds
up in anticipation of a painful stimulus, on the calculation of
preferences, such as choosing between an earlier, severe shock versus a
later, milder one. Most of these experimental designs have manipulated
high-level feelings (for instance, outrage at an unfair allocation) and
concluded that there are interactions between cognitive and emotional
processing. Do low-level, visceral drives have a similar impact?
Nordgren et al. induced a state of fatigue in students by administering
an effortful memory task and then asked them to attribute another
student's incomplete test preparation, described in a vignette, to
fatigue or to a lack of motivation. They found that fatigued subjects
(referred to as being in a "hot" state in comparison to "cold"
nontasked controls) were more likely to explain the actor's behavior as
caused by fatigue and that this predilection persisted even when
subjects were instructed to avoid letting their own tiredness influence
their attribution. Atance and Meltzoff show that this inability to look
beyond one's current visceral state can be revealed by asking children
who have just eaten two dozen pretzel sticks whether they prefer water
to more pretzels now (yes, they do) and also what they will want to
have tomorrow--water, again, despite the strong preference of unfed
subjects to choose pretzels both for today and for tomorrow. -- GJC

Source: Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol312/issue5782/twil.dtl

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