ural learning. In this regard, culture provides the general meaning and sense of the experience as well as how the emotion is expressed.
Scherer (1992, 1993) states that the primary or central function of emotions is to detect relevant stimuli and assist in preparing a response. Emotions are said to serve an adaptive function in which the emotion operates to "decouple" the stimulus and the response. Of this process, Scherer (1994) states that:
The two major advantages of this decoupling, which I believe to be one of the central characteristics of emotion, are: (1) that a latency period intervenes between stimulus evaluation and reaction; and (2) that a response appropriate to the stimulus event is prepared and can be executed very quickly. (p. 128)
This decoupling function is said to be an adaptive process that has evolved over the years. It has two basic advantages. First, it allows a response that is not limited to primitive reflexes and its consequent fixed action. Second, it preserves the attribute of speed th
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