ABSTRACT
Emotion is fundamental to human experience. Every action we take, every decision we make, has an emotional context and therefore all our cognitive functions are coloured by our emotional state. Similarly, motivation is crucial to real-life function. We do not perform cognitive operations aimlessly for no reason. We do things that will achieve outcomes that we need or want, or to avoid outcomes that would be harmful or unpleasant. The vast majority of our behaviour is aimed at either obtaining rewards (which can be tangible or more abstract-as we will see, social approval, inclusion in a group, altruism, and perceived status can all be extremely rewarding) or avoiding punishments (which can, again, be tangible or more abstract). Emotional responses are crucial to motivated behaviour; if something elicits positive emotions we will seek it out, while if something elicits negative emotions we will avoid it.
