Affect and control: A conceptual clarification

Converging evidence seems to suggest that affect and cognitive control are related in interesting ways, and some researchers have suggested that affect may play a causal, or at least otherwise interesting role in cognitive control. Here I discuss reasons to believe that these claims are either unfounded or based on a conceptual misunderstanding. They are unfounded with respect to the role of conscious affective experience, which is not supported by any unequivocal evidence. And they are based on a conceptual misunderstanding with respect to unconscious affect: Given the strong conceptual overlap between affect on the one hand and cognitive control on the other, finding mechanisms that are shared by affect and control is an almost necessary outcome that does not provide any mechanistic insight but merely reflects the semantic overlap between the concepts. However, this overlap may be taken to expand our research perspective and take affect-related and control-related outcomes as equivalent markers of one underlying function that encompasses, and thus goes beyond the traditional concept of affect and control.