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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Mar 4.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Cogn Sci. 2015 Feb 5;19(3):126–132. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.01.004

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Emotional foundations of control. When decomposed, emotional episodes break down to (i) an antecedent event that (ii) produces changes in a cascade of different emotional primitives, which then (iii) motivate the execution of goal-directed behavior. When cognitive control is similarly decomposed, it becomes apparent that it is constituted by the same types of elements. Specifically, cognitive control is constituted by (i) an antecedent event (goal conflict) that (ii) triggers a host of emotional primitives (including changes in affect, facial expressions, underlying physiology, subjective experience, appraisals, and attributions) that (iii) motivate refocusing on goal-directed behavior (recruitment of control).