Luis De la Viña, Brandon W Goulding, Samuel Ronfard
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
In popular culture, positive emotions are often portrayed as performance enhancing (e.g., "happy students learn better"). However, the relationship between emotions and performance is not always straightforward. For instance, when positive emotions become too intense, they can harm cognitive performance. Do people's lay theories of emotions capture this complex relationship between emotions and performance? If so, how early in development do children grasp this nuanced relationship? In three preregistered experiments, we explored children's and adults' beliefs about the impact of different emotional states on attention in school. In Study 1a, we found that 5- to 7-year-old Canadian children (N = 90) and North American adults (N = 55) strongly predicted that happy characters would be better at paying attention in school compared to sad characters, but only adults predicted better attention for a mildly happy character compared to a very happy one. Study 1b (N = 60) shows that adults' intuitions about intense positive emotions as suboptimal for attentional tasks apply equally to child and adult characters. In Study 2, we found that children (N = 80) perceive that the effect of intensity depends on the emotion's valence-it compounds the adverse effects of sadness and amplifies the benefits of happiness. Conversely, adults (N = 80) believe strong emotions, regardless of their valence, are not ideal for paying attention in school. Together, our findings show a developing appreciation of the impact of emotional intensity on cognitive performance-an important aspect of children's emotion understanding with likely implications for self-regulated learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍：
Developmental Psychology ® publishes articles that significantly advance knowledge and theory about development across the life span. The journal focuses on seminal empirical contributions. The journal occasionally publishes exceptionally strong scholarly reviews and theoretical or methodological articles. Studies of any aspect of psychological development are appropriate, as are studies of the biological, social, and cultural factors that affect development. The journal welcomes not only laboratory-based experimental studies but studies employing other rigorous methodologies, such as ethnographies, field research, and secondary analyses of large data sets. We especially seek submissions in new areas of inquiry and submissions that will address contradictory findings or controversies in the field as well as the generalizability of extant findings in new populations. Although most articles in this journal address human development, studies of other species are appropriate if they have important implications for human development. Submissions can consist of single manuscripts, proposed sections, or short reports.
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