The Neuroscience of Emotions and the Role Emotions Play in Learning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62695/NDQA6480Keywords:
Emotions, Learning, Educational Neuroscience, Affective and Cognitive Brain ProcessesAbstract
The relationship between emotions and learning has always been of great interest in the field of educational neuroscience. Advancements in brain imaging techniques have given us better understanding on the role these affective components have in various cognitive processes including memory, attention, decision-making and social functioning (Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007). As educators and researchers in the field of educational neuroscience, our main objective in this paper is to bridge the gap between education and neuroscience. Applying scientific research to the classroom is not a straightforward process (Shearer, 2020; Howard-Jones, 2014). However, we believe that educators can benefit a lot when exposed to scientific research in order to base their classroom practice on solid grounds. Additionally, educators have a lot to offer from their first-hand experience in schools, especially when it comes to the role of emotions in teaching and learning. A meta-analysis of current research in the field will be presented to highlight the important role of emotions in learning. By understanding this role, we aim to inform and transform educational practices in the local scenario and beyond.
References
Adolphs, R. (2017). How should neuroscience study emotions? By distinguishing emotion states, concepts, and experiences. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 12(1), 24–31.
Albert, D., Chein, J., & Steinberg, L. (2013). The teenage brain: Peer influences on adolescent decision making. Current directions in psychological science, 22(2), 114–120.
Baddeley, A. D. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255(5044), 556–559.
Barbey, A. K., Krueger, F., & Grafman, J. (2009). Structured event complexes in the medial prefrontal cortex support counterfactual representations for future planning. Philosophical Transactions of the royal society B: Biological sciences, 364, 1291–1300.
Barnett, S. M., & Ceci, S. J. (2002). When and where do we apply what we learn? A taxonomy for far transfer. Psychological bulletin, 128, 612–637.
Barrett, L. F. (2014). The conceptual act theory: A précis. Emotion review, 6(4), 292–297.
Barrett, L. F., & Russell, J. (2015). The psychological construction of emotion. Guilford Publications.
Beaty, R. E., Benedek, M., Kaufman, S. B., & Silvia, P. J. (2015). Default and executive network coupling supports creative idea production. Scientific reports, 5(1), 10964. 1–14.
Beilock, S. L., Rydell, R. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2007). Stereotype threat and working memory: Mechanisms, alleviation, and spillover. Journal of experimental psychology: General, 136(2), 256–276.
Blakemore, S.-J. (2018). Inventing ourselves: The secret life of the teenage brain. PublicAffairs.
Bradbury, N. A. (2016). Attention span during lectures: 8 seconds, 10 minutes, or more? Advances in physiology education, 40(4), 509–513.
Butler, A. C. (2010). Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying. Journal of experimental psychology, 36, 1118–1133.
Celeghin, A., Diano, M., Bagnis, A., Viola, M., & Tamietto, M. (2017). Basic emotions in human neuroscience: Neuroimaging and beyond. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1432.
Chen, J. (2019). Exploring the impact of teacher emotions on their approaches to teaching: A structural equation modeling approach. British journal of educational psychology, 89, 57–74.
Damasio, A. R. (2005). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain (2nd ed.). Penguin.
Damasio, A. R. (2006). Emotion and the human brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 935(1), 101–106.
De Gelder, B., van Honk, J., & Tamietto, M. (2011). Emotion in the brain: Of low roads, high roads and roads less travelled. Nature reviews neuroscience, 12(7), 425.
Dolcos, F., & Denkova, E. (2014). Current emotion research in cognitive neuroscience: Linking enhancing and impairing effects of emotion on cognition. Emotion review, 6(4), 362–375.
Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (2011). Experiments: An Introduction to Core Concepts. In J. N. Druckman, D. P. Green, J. H. Kuklinski, & A. Lupia (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of experimental political science, (pp. 15–26). Cambridge University Press.
Ekman, P. (2016). What scientists who study emotion agree about. Perspectives on psychological science, 11(1), 31–34.
Engle, R. W. (2002). Working memory capacity as executive attention. Current directions in psychological science, 11(1), 19–23.
Fehr, B., & Russell, J. A. (1984). Concept of emotion viewed from a prototype perspective. J. Exp. Psychol., 113, 464–486.
Fossati, P. (2012). Neural correlates of emotion processing: From emotional to social brain. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 22, S487–S491.
Franks, D. D. (2006). The neuroscience of emotions. In J. E. Stets & J. H. Turner (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of emotions (pp. 38–62). Springer.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition and emotion, 19, 313–332.
Garvert, M. M., Friston, K. J., Dolan, R. J., & Garrido, M. I. (2014). Subcortical amygdala pathways enable rapid face processing. Neuroimage, 102, 309–316.
Gathercole, S. E., & Alloway, T. P. (2008). Working memory and learning: A practical guide for teachers. SAGE Publications.
Goetz, T., Frenzel, A. C., Hall, N. C., & Pekrun, R. (2008). Antecedents of academic emotions: Testing the internal/external frame of reference model for academic enjoyment. Contemporary educational psychology, 33(1), 9–33.
Gogtay, N., Giedd, J. N., Lusk, L., Hayashi, K. M., Greenstein, D., Vaituzis, A. C., & Thompson, P. M. (2004). Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(21), 8174–8179.
Goldstein, S. (1933). On the two-dimensional steady flow of a viscous fluid behind a solid body.―I. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character, 142(847), 545–562.
Gopnik, A., Meltzoff, A. N., & Kuhl, P. K. (2000). The scientist in the crib: What early learning tells us about the mind. Perennial.
Halpern, D. F., & Hakel, M. D. (2003). Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond: Teaching for long-term retention and transfer. Change: the magazine of higher learning, 35, 36–41.
Hascher, T. (2010). Learning and emotion: Perspectives for theory and research. European educational research journal, 9(1), 13–28.
Hosotani, R., & Imai-Matsumura, K. (2011). Emotional experience, expression, and regulation of high-quality Japanese elementary school teachers. Teaching and teacher education, 27(6), 1039–1048.
Howard-Jones, P. A. (2014). Neuroscience and education: Myths and messages. Nature reviews neuroscience, 15(12), 817–824.
Immordino‐Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, brain, and education, 1(1), 3–10.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., Darling-Hammond, L., & Krone, C. R. (2019). Nurturing nature: How brain development is inherently social and emotional, and what this means for education. Educational psychology, 54(3), 185–204.
Jeffery, R. (2014). The promise and problems of the neuroscientific approach to emotions. International theory, 6(3), 584–589.
Jones, S., Farrington, C. A., Jagers, R., Brackett, M., & Kahn, J. (2018). A research agenda for the next generation. National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development.
Keller, A. S., Davidesco, I., & Tanner, K. D. (2020). Attention matters: How orchestrating attention may relate to classroom learning. Life sciences education, 19(3), 1–9.
King, R. B., & Chen, J. (2019). Emotions in education: Asian insights on the role of emotions in learning and teaching. The Asia-Pacific education researcher, 28(4), 279–281.
Kleinginna, R. K., & Kleinginna, M. A. (1981). A categorized list of emotion definitions, with suggestions for a consensual definition. Motivat. Emot., 5, 345–379. doi: 10.1007/BF00992553
Kober, H., Barrett, L. F., Joseph, J., Bliss-Moreau, E., Lindquist, K., & Wager, T. D. (2008). Functional grouping and cortical–subcortical interactions in emotion: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Neuroimage, 42(2), 998–1031.
Kolodner, J. L. (1997). Educational implications of analogy. American psychologist, 52, 57–66.
Li, L., Gow, A. D. I., & Zhou, J. (2020). The role of positive emotions in education: A neuroscience perspective. Mind, brain, and education, 14(3), 220–234.
LeDoux, J. (2012). Rethinking the emotional brain. Neuron, 73(4), 653–676.
Masoura, E. V. (2006). Establishing the link between working memory function and learning disabilities. Learning disabilities: A contemporary journal, 4(2), 29–41.
McCraty, R. (2003). The scientific role of the heart in learning and performance. HeartMath Research Center, Institute of HeartMath, Publication, (02-030), 1–10.
McGaugh, J. L. (2004). The amygdala modulates the consolidation of memories of emotionally arousing experiences. Annual review neuroscience, 27, 1–28.
Medina, J. (2014). Brain rules. Pear Press.
Osher, D., & Kendziora, K. (2010). Building conditions for learning and healthy adolescent development: Strategic approaches. In B. Doll, W. Pfohl, & J. Yoon (Eds.), Handbook of youth prevention science (pp. 121–140). Routledge.
Oudeyer, P.-Y., Gottlieb, J., & Lopes, M. (2016). Intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and learning: Theory and applications in educational technologies. Progress in brain research, 229, 257–284.
Panksepp, J. (2004). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. Oxford University Press.
Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., & Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self-regulated learning and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational psychologist, 37(2), 91–105.
Pekrun, R., & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (Eds.). (2014). International handbook of emotions in education (Vol. 16). Routledge.
Richter-Levin, G., & Akirav, I. (2000). Amygdala-hippocampus dynamic interaction in relation to memory. Molecular neurobiology, 22, 11–20.
Schutz, P. A., & Pekrun, R. E. (2007). Emotion in education. Elsevier Academic Press.
Scott, C., & Sutton, R. E. (2009). Emotions and change during professional development for teachers: A mixed methods study. Journal of mixed methods research, 3, 151–171.
Shariff, A. F., & Tracy, J. L. (2011). What are emotion expressions for? Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci., 20, 395–399. doi: 10.1177/0963721411424739
Shearer, C. B. (2020). Multiple intelligences in gifted and talented education: Lessons learned from neuroscience after 35 years. Roeper Review, 42(1), 49-63.
Shonkoff, J. P. (2011). Protecting brains, not simply stimulating minds. Science, 333(6045), 982–983.
Simons, J. S., & Spiers, H. J. (2003). Prefrontal and medial temporal lobe interactions in long-term memory. Nature review neuroscience, 4, 637–648.
Spunt, R. P., & Adolphs, R. (2019). The neuroscience of understanding the emotions of others. Neuroscience letters, 693, 44–48.
Srinivasan, P. (2015). Exploring the influences of teacher’s intelligence and emotional intelligence on students’ academic achievement. American journal of educational research, 3(9), 1159–1162.
Swanson, H. L., & Siegel, L. (2001). Learning disabilities as a working memory deficit. Issues in education: Contributions from educational psychology, 7, 1–49.
Tamietto, M., Castelli, L., Vighetti, S., Perozzo, P., Geminiani, G., Weiskrantz, L., & de Gelder, B. (2009). Unseen facial and bodily expressions trigger fast emotional reactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(42), 17661–17666.
Thomas, M. S., Mareschal, D., & Dumontheil, I. (2020). Educational neuroscience development across the life span. Routledge.
Tracy, J. L., & Randles, D. (2011). Four models of basic emotions: A review of Ekman and Cordaro, Izard, Levenson, and Panksepp and Watt. Emot. Rev. 3, 397–405.
Tyng, C. M., Amin, H. U., Saad, M. N. M., & Malik, A. S. (2017) The influences of emotion on learning and memory. Frontiers in psychology, 8(1454), 1–22.
Uitto, M., Jokikokko, K., & Estola, E. (2015). Virtual special issue on teachers and emotions in teaching and teacher education (TATE) in 1985–2014. Teaching and Teacher Education, 50, 124–135.
Um, E., Plass, J. L., Hayward, E. O., & Homer, B. D. (2012). Emotional design in multimedia learning. Journal of educational psychology, 104, 485–498.
Villavicencio, F. T., & Bernardo, A. B. I. (2013). Positive academic emotions moderate the relationship between self-regulation and academic achievement. British journal of educational psychology, 83(2), 329–340.
Vuilleumier, P. (2005). How brains beware: Neural mechanisms of emotional attention. Trends in cognitive sciences, 9, 585–594.
Yin, H. B., Huang, S., & Wang, W. (2017). Work environment characteristics and teacher well-being: The mediation of emotion regulation strategies. International journal of environment research public health, 13(9), 907.
Zilkha, N., & Kimchi, T. (2018). Social isolation’s molecular signature. Nature, 559(7712), 38–40.
Zull, J. E. (2006). Key aspects of how the brain learns. In S. Johnson & K. Taylor (Eds.), The neuroscience of adult learning (pp. 3–9). Jossey-Bass.
