feeling

In psychology emotion refers to physiological effects such heart rate, whereas feeling refers to the interpretation of this in higher-order ways such as 'fear' or 'excitement'. Crucially in many situations the physiological effect (emotion) preceeds the interpretation (feeling). For example, if someone burst a balloon your heart will instantly race, but whether this leads to a sense of fun, fear or anger depends on the situation.

In day-to-day speech both emotion and feeling are often called 'emotion'. The distinction is important, however, when creating intelligent user interfaces that seek to interpret or predict human emotional responses. It can also be useful when considering artificial emotion, with different ways to emulate the physiological side and the interpretation.