In my opinioin, yes emotions can help to increase the performance of learning, but it should not be involved directly into the learning process (training phase), it should be used as a support module which its results can be fused with other learning modules.

Dear Fadi Al Machot

Agree that generally, emotions if they increase performance during the learning process. If particularize, we could assert that an "emotional brain" learns more than a "listless brain."

However, you should understand emotions like "enthusiasm or love of learning" discipline, subject or content in question. Quite the opposite happens when emotions such anxiety and nervousness come into play, a situation that occurs frequently'mayor when the individual is not sure how or the quantity and quality of what you are learning.

There are many clinical, experimental and educational research evidence which shows that anxiety blocks short-term memory and decreases the ability to relate the purpose of study and important everyday experiences related to what is being learned. which prevents learning meaningful and long-term (life).

regards

Dear Dr. Garcia Vigil,

Thank you for you interesting question. Your reply that anxiety and nervousness inhibit learning is true and this aspect is mentioned indirectly below.

I am going to look at it from another perspective. Learning is related to passion and passion is related to the heart.  It  seems that more information is sent from the heart to the brain than vice versa (McCraty, 2009).  The "movements" of the heart seem to be reflected in the brain but they do not tell us what these movements are about although they may indicate a certain area (as you mention in the introduction).

The next question is how does one activate passion in a subject?. And this is where things get interesting. Although I have not seen research on this, sometimes passion in a subject comes about because little Johnny was suddenly noticed positively by a teacher and he felt good about it. Through this he becomes interested in the subject the teacher teachers as he wants to please her.  The oposite of course can also happen. Both aspects happened to me when I was in primary school - so simple things like this can affect one for life. I had undiagnosed dislexia and some teachers publicly made fun of my lack of ability to spell, this made me "shut down" in their presence. I also shut down to what they taught. Some of this was reversed by wiser teachers later on. So my interest in these subjects were also reversed. 

Of course this is not only the reason for becoming "passionate" about a topic.The enthusiasm about a subject can  awaken enthusiasm in another - sometimes a teacher does this, sometimes a parent. Enthusiasm again for me is "heart-based" with reflections in the brain.

A last aspect I want to mention, is interest brought about by "experience". I had experiences as a young child sitting at the feet of humble black labourers who worked on the farm next door. I felt "peace" - it was a state of consciousness which I did not experience at home. My life´s quest to understand "consciousness" grew out of these childhood experiences. In my next publication which is under review at the moment, I talk about peace as an inner experience. For me  this level of consciousness is linked with the "heart",  I present these thoughts via a  study I undertook as  part of my dissertation. In this study  learning is related to learning about one´s inner world and how it works. I do not know how these states are reflected in the brain as I did not undertake it as part of my investigation but it would be interesting. . 

Sincerely - Tina

Dear Tina Lindhard

Thank you very much for your emotional response to the importance of emotions and experiences to learn meanings to life, as you did in your childhood you with some of your teachers who saw your intellectual potential regardless of dyslexia.

Of course I share same emotions meaningful learning in the field of moral values and ethical principles that assimilated from parental education in the family, as some teachers throughout my basic education and vocational training.

I also share emotional information recalling a paragraph of the book by Amos Oz "A Tale of Love and Darkness", about their master "Zelda" in the second grade when I lived in a village in Israel, who loved not for its beauty physical, but because of its "aura of mystery" and intellectual beauty, especially with the combination of words, phrases and sentences that opened a different world, the imagination, the ideas and the apparent meaning and metaphorical words (Prose poetics and Poetry) compared with the experiences sometimes dark, without much color or painful everyday life and everyday life.

I agree on the importance of continuing and do a brain map of emotions and spirituality, which with current evidence, apparently are located in both the limbic system and in-parietal fronto of both hemispheres cerebral cortex, without discarding the area virtual and electromagnetic it formed with neural synapses connecting these areas, even with their representation in the vital matrix which has shown us one of your publications.

Best regards

Jose Luis

Self-Centred Vx Other-Centred Emotions: They will have differential impact on learning and memory.

Since motivation i closely related to emotion, and that motivation is essential for learning, yes emotion is important. But not all kind of emotions. Emotion of joy, interest, satisfaction after effort are the main ones.

Religious, Political and Community Leaders dedicate their lives for the sake of others and this Altruistic Behaviour has acheived greater goals. Their memory and learning are superior.

An experiment may be designed in which:

1. a group is reinfored with financial incentive for their task performance, and

2. the other group is reinforced with the incentive for their tak performance  is to be donated for a community welfare activity.

The learning process is essentially based upon the memory functions of the brain, specifically long-term declarative memory which is broken down into episodic memory (events and experiences) and semantic memory (facts and concepts). The specific type of memory associated with knowledge, i.e., learning, is semantic memory. The coding of semantic memory as with other declaratory memory is based principally in the hippocampus which part of the limbic system and which is deeply associated with emotions. The emotional context of learning has profound effects on the retention of memories including the long-term memory function critical to learning. The hippocampus is directly linked to the amygdala which triggers emotional responses signaling the hippocampus to the importance of the memory. This emotional context can greatly enhance learning or impede learning, Even the most dry wave form equation in quantum physics can create a sense of excitement in the mind of a person passionate about quantum physics whereas the same equation to a student obligated to take a course in physics without such passion will dump the memory shortly after the exam. Creating a positive emotional context to learning is what differentiates a great teacher from a mediocre one since the emotional context can be created contemporaneously with learning. On the other hand, in a negative emotional context such as fear, the hippocampus will prioritize the episodic nature of the learning event as opposed to the sematic nature of the learning event. In this case, a student's memory will not be about the wave form equation but will be "Wow, that professor is cruel, I'm never taking a course with her again!"  In cases of extreme stress, the limbic system triggers the release of powerful neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine which have the effect of shutting down cognitive functions and can even cause a person to freeze (tonic immobility). This type of stress is what causes some people to suffer from "test anxiety" who do poorly even though they know the material. So the emotional context of learning is critical to the ability to learn but, I am afraid, is largely overlooked and not even considered an issue, by many educators.  

Dear Ganesan Vedagiri and Louise Boisclair

Thank you for your contributions, touching aspects are precisely those that facilitate learning related incentives, motivation and interest, all with emotional nuance.

Dear Peter J Didomenica

Thank you for your very detailed, didactic and informed contribution to scientific and educational evidence of the intimate mechanism and relationship between emotions and learning with meaning, learning from experience, long-term and life not just for school.

Totally agree

regards

Dear Luis Daniel Maldonado Fonken

What he mentions in synthesis are elements to consider in meaningful learning, where emotions play a primordial role. To learn by the desire to know more, to have the capacity to apply their knowledge better for the benefit of some individual or social group, to work in a discipline or profession by vocation, to learn with pleasure, joy and playing.

Thanks for your examples.

regards

Jose Luis

Estimado Luis Daniel Maldonado Fonken

Lo que menciona en síntesis son elementos a considerar en el aprendizaje significativo, donde las emociones juegan un papel primordial. Aprender por el deseo de conocer más, por tener la capacidad de aplicar mejor sus conocimientos en beneficio de algún individuo o grupo social, trabajar en una disciplina o profesión por vocación, el aprender con gusto, alegría y jugando.

Gracias por sus ejemplos

Saludos

José Luis

There is a positive and strong relationship between emotional intelligence and learning. The works of Yaoda Xu from Yale University focus on this relationship by investigating the related functions of human mind.