EN
The paper deals with the role of emotion in the course of human cognitive processes. As stimuli eliciting these processes, television political advertising of candidates in Polish presidential election in 1995 were used. Four general theoretical models of human affective-cognitive functioning are hypothesized: radical and moderate constructivism, and radical and moderate realism. These models were tested using structural equation modeling (so called path analysis). The results obtained support two models of human epistemic processes: moderate emotional-cognitive constructivism and radical emotional-cognitive realism. These models assume that emotional attitude toward a social object proceeds information processing related to this object.