In this video, we're going to be talking about the Cannon Bard theory. So the idea behind the Cannon Bard theory is that physiological arousal and the emotional experience are going to be occurring simultaneously but they are independent events. So the idea is that we would have our stimulus and then at the exact same time I would have an increase in my physiology. I'd have increased heart rate, increased respiration, etcetera, and I would feel the emotion of fear. But one of these is not necessary for the other to happen, so they are simultaneous but independent.

And there actually is some research supporting this. So research has shown that physiological arousal is not always necessary for an emotional experience. A very simple example of this is people who are quadriplegic. So people who have spinal cord injuries and maybe can't receive biofeedback from the majority of their bodies. But obviously, those people can still experience the full range of human emotion even without that physiology component.

So that is some evidence that these are kind of independent processes. However, as I'm sure you may have noticed, we are still missing an entire component of emotion here. So much like the James Lang theory, this theory also really underplays the role of cognition. So it is a nice simple explanation and there is some research supporting it but it's still kind of missing a piece. Alright, so that is our Cannon Bard theory and I will see you guys in the next one.

Bye bye.