Psychology of Affect -4

4- -Psychology of Affect

Several models have been developed to describe the monitoring system. Researchers like Bower & Cohen, Fridja & Swagerman among others have specified emotional determinants as a series of rules that interpret external conditions to map them into appropriate emotions (Bower, 1992). When a certain emotion has been activated, our system will act to develop a corrective plan that can be either retrieved from our memory or developed anew (Bower, 1992). In another way therefore, the instructor can encourage the learner develop a positive kind of thinking on his learning abilities; hence avoiding the absorption of parameters in the student’s surrounding environment; like discouragement, which may stimulate negative reactions that may discourage learning. This is especially true considering that our systems have a system of monitoring the progress in achieving our goals; directly contributing to the kind of emotions that we experience in turn. As I will elaborate further on, emotions themselves play a comparatively significant role in the learning process.

            Most researchers agree that our capacity to remember an event is dependant on the attention that was given to the event (Bower, 1992). Our memory can be described as relational in the sense that; we are able to remember by relating an aspect to existing aspects in our memory (Bower, 1992). The attention that is normally given to an event depends on how the event may be interesting to us (Bower, 1992). Bower (1992) postulates that the two parameters that determine the level of interest to an event are: the level of unexpectedness to the occurrence of the event and the level of stimulating our emotions by the event. Considering that aspects in our memory are prioritized by our emotional stimuli, our emotions play a significant role in our capacity to remember hence learning. It is therefore possible to exploit emotional reactions to advance learning.

            Studies like those by Brewer (2000) confirmed the role of emotions in remembering. This was observed when his students were given materials to read and rate. Contents in the readings that were emotional affected the students in the following ways depending on their level of strength. One, they could stop the loop of events that had been stored in their memory by preceding events (in the material that was being read). They could also bias the current emotional event and could negatively affect the attention given to previous events. Indeed, as we have all experienced, we tend to remember more autobiography contents largely because the experiences that have been shared by the writers excite our emotions. Likewise a romantic novel is more likely to be easily embedded in our memories than a scientific handbook: considering that the events in the novel are more likely to excite our emotions and subsequently inspire interest.

            Since memory is directly responsible for storing any data as well as any information within us, there can be no learning without memory. Whether it is formulas, concepts, computational capabilities and coordinating, or the use of a monitoring system, it is stored in our memory (Knol, 2008). The fact that our memories are a product in partiality from our emotions shows how emotions are of significance in learning. To emphasize this even further, we need to view not only the singular effect of a particular emotion but the possible cumulative effect of this kind of emotion when it interacts with other emotions and other factors that affect learning over time to form a pattern that determines learning in the long run.

            So far, I have talked about learning in a general way. I will now focus on how emotional psychology is related to mathematical learning in particular. Although I will not generally deviate from the foundation that I have lain from the above theory; and will not therefore be saying anything new. I will concentrate more on mathematical learning. Having mentioned the role of emotion in remembering hence learning, the role of emotions in mathematical learning can already be seen. As I had mentioned, even computational capacities that are often consulted when solving a mathematical calculation largely relies on stored procedures that are in our memories. The process of calculation is also monitored by a program which behaves in a way that is similar; to the one that monitors our corrective plans which alter our emotions, which I had talked about earlier