The role of self-conscious emotions on inference generation
Marzolf, Brady A.
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Emotion may play a critical role in a reader's ability to comprehend text. Past research has shown that happy and sad emotions influence processing, which can impact comprehension. More specific emotions, such as self-conscious emotions, require a reader to allocate more cognitive resources to process those emotions. This study examines the effects of pride, shame, guilt, and neutral emotions on readers' abilities to generate bridging inferences. After an autobiographical memory task, participants read texts and answered questions that required a bridging inference to be generated. Response times and accuracy rates for the inference generation task were examined. Statistically significant effects of emotion were found when examining accuracy rates for knowledge validating questions: Pride may facilitate general knowledge activation during reading. The results suggest that emotion may play an important role in learning, and hence should be attended to by educational professionals.
Thesis (M.Ed.)--Wichita State University, College of Education, Dept. of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology