Disentangling the Effects of Emotion on Inferencing: Does Pride Facilitate Integration or Knowledge Activation?

• In Event: 69.058 - Poster Session 16
  In Poster Session: 69.058-7 - Understanding Instruction, Learning, and Motivation in Literacy

Abstract

Emotion plays an important role in inference generation during reading. This study sought to disentangle whether positive emotions facilitate inference generation via memory, integration, or prior knowledge activation. In the present study, participants induced to feel pride, shame, guilt, or a neutral emotion answered questions requiring textual memory, prior knowledge, integration, or text-with-knowledge integration. Although pride generally facilitated performance, the facilitative effects were more pronounced for inferential questions requiring integration, but not prior knowledge. Shame and guilt facilitated performance for questions requiring local textual memory, but decreased performance for questions requiring prior knowledge. The results have important implications for the complex ways in which emotions affect comprehension in educational settings.

Authors

• Catherine M. Bohn-Gettler, College of Saint Benedict

• Brady Marzolf, Wichita State University

• Jill Marzolf, Wichita Public Schools