The Role of Understanding Characters' Minds in a Narrative Task: Effects on Emotions and Performance

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Division C Poster Session

Abstract

This study examined students’ emotions, and comprehension of the social cognitive elements of a story, to investigate how social cognitive information in storybooks is used to both facilitate understanding of the story and regulate emotions. Novel facial expression-coding technology, Emotient, was used to measure students’ emotions in real-time. Narratives were coded for overall story quality, and social cognitive comprehension. The results demonstrated that frustration and anger were significantly related to storytelling ability. Social cognitive comprehension was significantly related to both emotions, and overall storytelling ability. A partial mediation model was significant, in which social cognitive comprehension mediated the relationship between emotions and storytelling quality. These results will inform future research in self-regulated learning, and social-cognition, within technology-rich environments.

Authors

• Stephanie Buono, University of Toronto

• Earl Woodruff, OISE/University of Toronto

• Etri Kocaqi, University of Toronto