Theory 04
Basic emotion theory treats emotions as evolved families with characteristic signals; the theory of constructed emotion treats them as built in the moment. This essay sets out both, the evidence each cites, and what the debate means for measuring emotion.
Research note 05
Affective computing promises to infer emotion as if it were a system metric. The evidence on facial movements and autonomic signals, together with questions of consent, explains why every metric in this artifact is an artistic value.
Methods
How one could reason about recording a catharsis-like change of state: signals, features, inference and context, baselines, self-report, error costs and ethics, and why every step stays uncertain. Nothing on this site measures anyone.
Question 11
Instruments record faces, heart rhythms and skin conductance. Emotions are inferred from those recordings, and the syntheses show the inference is weak: no gold standard, no autonomic fingerprint, modest coherence.
Detection sandbox
Five synthetic signals, one setting, and every reading they support at once. Change the setting and the signals stay where they are while the leading interpretation changes, which is the point.