Preface
Marianne HABIB
DysCo, Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, France
For the past three decades, emotional processes have been increasingly studied in psychology, whether through their modalities of expression, through the cognitive processes necessary for their feeling and expression (e.g. cognitive evaluation of the emotional situation), or through the cognitive processes they impact (e.g. attention, reasoning and learning). Philosophical and psychological theories on the links between emotional and cognitive processes have varied enormously over the centuries, since antiquity, sometimes postulating a dualism, sometimes an interdependence between these processes. Due to the wealth of methodologies currently available to researchers (behavioral methods, physiological methods and neuroimaging), the impact of emotions on cognitive functions is now undeniable and supported by numerous experimental arguments (e.g. Blanchette and Richards 2010). Thus, the Cartesian vision of an opposition between reason and emotions is outdated, giving way to the vision according to which psychological processes are necessary for the emergence of emotions and are in turn influenced by them. As learning is central to an individual’s development and involves different cognitive processes, a growing body of research is examining the impact of emotional processes in learning situations. In this book, we will examine the influence of different types of emotions or emotional processes on various learning situations across a human’s lifespan.
To define what an emotion is, I will start with a quote from Fehr and Russell (1984, p. 464) that I find particularly appropriate: “Everyone knows what an emotion is, until asked to give a definition.” Different terms can be used when talking about emotions, and we have chosen here not to distinguish between the terms emotion, affect and mood. The etymology of the word “emotion” comes from the Latin e movere, referring to the notion of movement and transformation.
In line with this idea of transformation, we will mainly refer to emotions as a reaction to an external or internal event, which is characterized by several components: a cognitive evaluation of the situation (e.g. I perceive something that surprises me), a physical expression (e.g. widening of the eyes), a peripheral response (e.g. increased sweating or heart rate), a tendency to act (e.g. jump in surprise) and a subjective feeling (in this case, the surprise) (Sander et al. 2005). In the literature on emotions, some authors (e.g. LeDoux and Brown 2017) consider emotions to be conscious processes, while others do not exclude the possibility that they are unconscious (e.g. Damasio 1994). Damasio considers that emotions refer to a set of responses triggered from parts of the brain toward the body, or toward other parts of the brain, via neural and humoral routes. All in all, these definitions are not very far from Aristotle’s (Dufour M. (trans). 1960), who defined emotions as the transformation of an individual’s state, especially in terms of his reasoning and judgments, and which is accompanied by pleasure and pain. Thus, since antiquity, emotions were perceived as being able to affect high-level cognitive processes. The definition of emotions as comprising several components allows us to consider some components as conscious and more easily detectable, such as the physiological manifestations of emotion or their subjective feeling; while other components can be unconscious, such as the evaluation of the situation, which is a rapid and automatic process. Finally, the component of orientation of conduct as a result of the emotional feeling, or tendency to act, is only partially conscious. As mentioned above, emotion thus has an adaptive role, which allows the individual to act or adjust his or her behavior as a result of the emotional feeling.
This book aims to present the contributions of different disciplines of psychology to the understanding of the role of emotional processes in learning situations, from a developmental and lifelong perspective. Etymologically, learning corresponds to the acquisition of knowledge. In cognitive psychology, learning is defined as a situation involving a learner (the actor, at different developmental stages) whose aim is to acquire a new form of knowledge or a new skill. This acquisition of knowledge or know-how implies a set of cognitive processes allowing new information to be processed (attention), associated with other information already known (judgment and reasoning) and encoded for future reuse (memory). Learning is, from the beginning of life, an optimal means of adapting to the environment. The child learns already in utero. Today, we have massively distanced ourselves from the concept of a “clean slate at birth”. The human brain begins to be constructed in utero, and this process continues after birth and throughout life. It is therefore particularly suited to optimal learning in relation to the environment in which the individual evolves. Learning can thus consist of “refining a model of the world” (Dehaene 2018, p. 39), adapting to the socio-cultural context in which we evolve, acquiring knowledge and know-how in connection with others and in connection with our emotional feelings. Among the social environments in which children and adolescents evolve, one of the functions of school is to enable the greatest number of people to improve and increase their knowledge and skills, from the beginning of compulsory education. Children and adolescents must adapt their behavior to this environment, in which they find themselves in the company of peers who can in turn influence their behavior. Finally, learning is also about rewriting and selecting relevant information, in order to correct previously erroneous information or resist information that is not. We will see that emotions can play a role at different stages of this process.
The chapters of this book review the influence of emotions on various learning situations, relating either to school learning, or to daily life learning. Indeed, human beings are exposed throughout their lives to new situations in which learning is required. We wanted to explore human development in this lifelong perspective, from infancy to adulthood, to emphasize that learning continues as long as new knowledge and skills are acquired, and not only during a favorable period (e.g. up to the age of 30 years), as may have been suggested previously. Thus, throughout life, learning gives rise to grounding, allowing the knowledge or know-how acquired to be reused in similar situations. We will see that emotions can influence learning, just as they can influence the retrieval of information acquired in past experiences and consequently the orientation of an individual’s behavior. The chapters of this book will focus on emotions as a way to learn and consequently to develop: learning in a school context or in a traumatic context, learning to reason and to decide, learning from oneself and from others, learning and developing one’s personality and character, and finally acquiring wisdom.
Chapter 1
Social-emotional competencies, defined as a set of fundamental capacities relating to the emotional and relational spheres of life (e.g. self-awareness, awareness of others or self-regulation), promote the child’s adaptation to his or her environment and, by extension, the acquisition of academic knowledge and skills. Thus, the first chapter of this work deals with the role of social-emotional competencies in children’s learning and academic achievement. It is based on recent research that shows that learning and succeeding in school do not depend solely on intellectual abilities. Children learn and grow in communities, through human relationships that inevitably include a social-emotional dimension. This first chapter also describes the role that the school can play as a place for the development of these skills, through the presentation of different social and emotional learning programs. Finally, it presents the benefits associated with this type of learning, which is an important issue in promoting learning for all students, starting at the beginning of kindergarten.
Chapter 2
The second chapter focuses on the role of laughter and humor in early learning. Laughter is an innate behavior that is present from an early age. Humor refers to the ability to feel or express something amusing and funny. It can be broadly defined as any activity, verbal or non-verbal, that is perceived as funny by others and that elicits laughter. This chapter presents a review of the literature on the development of humor, its definition, perception and production during the first years of life, and its functions. It underlines that, more or less intuitively, most teachers have long used various forms of humor in the classroom, particularly in elementary classrooms (Bryant et al. 1979). The various effects of this use are presented, such as strengthening the teacher-student bond, improving the educational climate in general and enhancing performance, learning and related mechanisms.
Chapter 3
The third chapter reviews the different emotional theories, referring to the idea that there are as many definitions of emotions as there are emotional theories (Kleinginna and Kleinginna 1981). Thus, this chapter will first trace the evolution of the concept and the underlying theories of emotion. Second, it details the development of emotional skills in children and adolescents, and more specifically the capacities to identify, understand and regulate emotions. This part also highlights the role of these capacities in the development of the social bond and in the relationship with others. Finally, the third part of the chapter focuses on the role and influence of the Theory of Mind and of language skills in the development of emotional skills, highlighting the tenuous relation between the development of these skills and the development of other cognitive abilities. These elements make it possible to highlight the role of emotional skills in the acquisition of knowledge and in school learning.
Chapter 4
The fourth chapter deals with the role of motivation in learning. Motivation is defined here as a set of internal and/or external forces that produce the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behavior (Vallerand and Thill 1993). This process is often cited as one of the determinants of success in various areas of personal, professional and academic life. This chapter draws on three theoretical approaches that provide a solid and diversified framework for improved understanding of academic motivation, its dynamics, determinants and consequences: self-determination theory, achievement goal theory and self-efficacy theory. This chapter also emphasizes the fundamental role played by the teacher in motivating students, through the climate they create, the nature of the activities they propose, the perceptions of effectiveness these activities generate and the feedback they provide to the student. This chapter will attempt to answer the following questions: what factors condition the student’s engagement in school learning? What is the respective part played by the student’s psychological dispositions and educational practices in this commitment? What are the consequences of motivation on academic achievement, perseverance in learning in the face of difficulties or challenges, continuation or abandonment of studies, and the well-being of the student? How do these consequences feed back into school motivation? Finally, this chapter will present “recommendations” for promoting optimal motivation and thus learning through teaching practices.
Chapter 5
The fifth chapter deals with the emotional processes and the learning that occur in decision-making situations from a developmental perspective. Everyday life is made up of small or large decisions that will have a more or less important impact on our near or distant future. Decision-making is a complex cognitive process, omnipresent in daily life, which requires the consideration and selection of an option among a set of possibilities. Emotions are often involved in this process, as is the socio-emotional context in which the decision is made. This chapter aims to review research in psychology that highlights the role of emotions in learning in decision-making situations, from childhood to adulthood. It also aims to highlight the adaptive role of emotional processes in this learning process: emotions allow us to learn from our environment in order to better adapt our decisions. Although they have long been perceived as elements in opposition to rationality, current research is no longer in agreement with this point of view. Part of this chapter is devoted to adolescence, a period often perceived as being associated with increased risk-taking, linked to heightened emotions and to the social context (the peer group). This is a public health issue, as adolescents show a significant increase in mortality and morbidity due to increased risk-taking. Finally, it presents some models aiming at improving the understanding of the processes involved in adolescent risk-taking, and in particular the role of emotional processes.
Chapter 6
The purpose of the sixth chapter is to explore the role of the social context and the interactions with others in the development of a form of self-regulation that developmental scientists have termed inhibitory control. Inhibitory control refers to the ability to resist an inappropriate immediate strategy in order to implement a more appropriate strategy for the task at hand. This ability plays a crucial role in learning and in the restitution of knowledge throughout life. This chapter will therefore discuss the role of inhibitory control in learning, and also how the social context and interactions with others can help the child learn to implement these control abilities. Higher mental functions cannot be formed without the constructive input of social interactions, which make the transmission of cognitive tools possible. This chapter will discuss self-regulatory capacities, the cognitive mechanisms associated with them, and their effect on the performance of higher mental functions and learning, sometimes beneficial or facilitating, and sometimes deleterious. It will also present a learning program offered in schools, aimed at improving these skills in young children.
Chapter 7
The seventh chapter focuses on the voice as carrying information regarding the speaker’s identity and emotions. It will show that vocal emotions are also an opportunity for learning, because the information conveyed by the voice plays an important role in the speaker’s memorization and recognition. Thus, in a socialized world, we are able to identify people when we have met them before and to recall information about them more or less accurately depending on their familiarity, for example who they are, what their name is, when we last met them and how much we like them. This process allows for efficient interpersonal interactions, for example we do not need to introduce ourselves each time before engaging in a conversation. However, it can be impaired, making it seem as if we are talking to strangers at the beginning of an interaction. There are two distinct syndromes: prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize a person from their face) and phonagnosia (the inability to identify people from their voice). This chapter will present the double dissociation between these syndromes, which indicates that facial and vocal identification are independent processes. The interactions between these processes have received little attention from the scientific community. However, recent models consider the voice/face interaction as fundamental in the process of recognition of others. Thus, the voice actively participates in the recognition of a person during communication; it conveys a lot of information – including emotional information – that will facilitate interactions. The seventh chapter will develop these different elements, as well as the facilitating phenomenon of emotions regarding recognition, which is still little explored in the cognitive sciences.
Chapter 8
The eighth chapter deals with the impact of a traumatic life experience on cognitive processes and learning ability. The learning context can refer to the more global context surrounding the learner, that is the general characteristics of their environment: the degree of political and social stability of their country, their social environment, their socio-economic conditions and their personal history. This chapter focuses on this last point, and more specifically on the stressful life experiences to which the learner has been exposed. This chapter will present several studies showing the chronic impact that stressful experiences can have on an individual’s cognitive and emotional functioning, which is likely to have significant – and negative – consequences on their learning abilities. The chapter will focus on the most stressful experiences that can leave serious psychological wounds: traumatic experiences and the way in which certain traumatic contexts can negatively impact different stages of the cognitive chain enabling learning. It will also detail the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that can explain these negative consequences. This issue is a societal challenge because education is a key factor for development and stability in low- and middle-income countries and for increasing equality of opportunity throughout the world. Because trauma exposure can negatively affect the prospects for successful educational programs, the question of the relationship between trauma and learning is one that deserves the full attention of psychologists.
Chapter 9
The ninth and final chapter focuses on wisdom, which is discussed here as a result of lifelong emotional learning. Interest in wisdom in psychology has increased particularly in the last 40 years. Historically, and before it became increasingly important in psychology, wisdom was first a focus of philosophers and theologians. The latter placed it at the rank of a virtue to distinguish it from the strict accumulation of knowledge about the world. In some traditional societies, it is even seen as a foundation for human relationships. In terms of psychological development, wisdom can be seen as the optimal outcome of the human life trajectory. Probably for this reason it is often seen as the result of lifelong learning and is associated with advancing age. This final chapter will address the concept of wisdom in contemporary psychological literature by describing the mental constructs most often associated with it, followed by an examination of studies conducted with young adults and older adults to examine the developmental trajectory of wisdom: do individuals become wiser as they age? We will then explore the affective dimension of the psychological construct of wisdom, in order to determine whether the emotional changes resulting from normal aging are synonymous with greater wisdom. This approach leads to the observation that wisdom can, under certain conditions, be considered as the fruit, harvested by our elders, of an emotional and spiritual learning process carried out during the course of our existence without constituting the monopoly of advanced age.
January 2022
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