CognitiveAffective

Cognitiveaffective is a term used to describe the integrated study of cognitive and affective processes, focusing on how thinking, perception, memory, and decision making interact with emotions, mood, and motivation. The concept emphasizes bidirectional influences: affect can shape attention, interpretation, and memory encoding, while cognitive processes can influence how emotions are appraised and regulated.

The field draws on cognitive psychology and affective neuroscience. The cognitive-affective processing systems (CAPS) model, associated with Walter Mischel, describes context-sensitive patterns of thought and emotion that guide behavior. Appraisal theories of emotion explain how assessments of situations elicit emotional responses that subsequently modulate cognitive processing, such as working memory and attentional control. Neuroimaging research implicates networks involving the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and anterior cingulate in the integration of cognitive and affective information.

Research areas include emotion-cognition interaction in decision making, social judgment, memory under emotional influence, and emotion regulation. Dysfunctions in cognitiveaffective integration are observed in anxiety and mood disorders, where attentional biases, rumination, or maladaptive appraisals affect cognition and emotion.

Applications span clinical interventions, education, and human–computer interaction. In technology, affective computing seeks to recognize and respond to emotional states to influence cognitive processing, while in therapy, approaches such as cognitive-behavioral and emotion-regulation strategies address the interplay between thoughts and feelings.

See also: affective neuroscience, cognitive psychology, emotion regulation, CAPS.