Cognitive Processing Architecture: Rational Effect and Emotional Effect

Abstract The study regarding the effect of reason and emotions effect on human interpretation, through a pragmatic perspective, justifies itself over the fact, in the cognitive sciences, the investigations involving language use associated to emotions are still quite incipient. Taking as reference the Relevance Theory (SPERBER; WILSON, 2001), the cognitive neurosciences (GAZZANIGA; IVRY; MAGNUM, 2006 and DAMÁSIO, 1994, 2004) and the cognitive psychology (LEDOUX, 1996 and STERNBERG, 2010), the objective of this study is to advocate in favor of a mental architecture that forgathers reason and emotions in the interpretation. Based on the modeling of the interpretation of an utterance that reports the frustration of an expectation, we argue that, in a communicative act, the desire is a trigger for the attribution of relevance when serving as a link between reason, which operates from the valuation of contextual representations, and emotions, which attribute affective levels to mental representations.