Assessing the validity of a computational model of emotional coping

In this paper we describe the results of a rigorous empirical study evaluating the coping responses of a computational model of emotion. We discuss three key kinds of coping, Wishful Thinking, Resignation and Distancing that impact an agent´s beliefs, intentions and desires, and compare these coping responses to related work in the attitude change literature. We discuss the EMA computational model of emotion and identify several hypotheses it makes concerning these coping processes. We assess these hypotheses against the behavior of human subjects playing a competitive board game, using monetary gains and losses to induce emotion and coping. Subject´s appraisals, emotional state and coping responses were indexed at key points throughout a game, revealing a pattern of subject´s al-tering their beliefs, desires and intentions as the game unfolds. The results clearly support several of the hypotheses on coping responses but also identify (a) extensions to how EMA models Wishful Thinking as well as (b) individual differences in subject´s coping responses.