Sense-Making phase transition framework for Affect
Abstract
Contemporary accounts of affect emphasize different perspectives, ranging from the regulation of bodily states in allostatic approaches to the relational and sense-making character stressed by enactive theories. Here, we show that affect can be made explicit within the sense-making phase transition framework previously introduced for the perception of an inner sensation. Within this same formal structure, each stable minimum of the sense-making potential defines an affective state: its position determines valence, while its depth determines arousal. Affect therefore is not introduced as an independent ingredient, but emerges as the associated state in the valence-arousal space, providing a link between allostatic and enactive approaches to affect. This formulation distinguishes valence intensity from arousal, allows for dominant and secondary affective states, and naturally accommodates mixed-valence configurations beyond a strictly bipolar description. Revisiting representative landscapes of the model, we show how neutral, uncertain, polarized, and mixed-valence regimes arise as a function of contextual sensory information, learned historical evaluation, and externally supplied information. We further show that the resulting valence-arousal relation provides a theoretical basis for the upper-open V-shaped organization discussed in the affect literature, while also opening a natural route toward a dynamical description of affect and emotions.
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BibTeX
@misc{bosch2026sensemaking,
title = {{Sense-Making phase transition framework for Affect}},
author = {Miguel Bosch and Laura Fanfarillo and Gustavo Diez and Victor Gómez Mayordomo and J. Ricardo Arias-Gonzalez and Belén Valenzuela},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.18115},
eprint = {2610.18115},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.18115},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Sense-Making phase transition framework for Affect
AU - Miguel Bosch
AU - Laura Fanfarillo
AU - Gustavo Diez
AU - Victor Gómez Mayordomo
AU - J. Ricardo Arias-Gonzalez
AU - Belén Valenzuela
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.18115
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.18115
AB - Contemporary accounts of affect emphasize different perspectives, ranging from the regulation of bodily states in allostatic approaches to the relational and sense-making character stressed by enactive theories. Here, we show that affect can be made explicit within the sense-making phase transition framework previously introduced for the perception of an inner sensation. Within this same formal structure, each stable minimum of the sense-making potential defines an affective state: its position determines valence, while its depth determines arousal. Affect therefore is not introduced as an independent ingredient, but emerges as the associated state in the valence-arousal space, providing a link between allostatic and enactive approaches to affect. This formulation distinguishes valence intensity from arousal, allows for dominant and secondary affective states, and naturally accommodates mixed-valence configurations beyond a strictly bipolar description. Revisiting representative landscapes of the model, we show how neutral, uncertain, polarized, and mixed-valence regimes arise as a function of contextual sensory information, learned historical evaluation, and externally supplied information. We further show that the resulting valence-arousal relation provides a theoretical basis for the upper-open V-shaped organization discussed in the affect literature, while also opening a natural route toward a dynamical description of affect and emotions.
ER -