Reading
True or False: Patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) perform poorly at work because their logical reasoning and general cognitive abilities are severely impaired.
False
List two risk factors that may lead to children's social-emotional difficulties
1. Childhood history of early deprivation and trauma
2. Family instability/conflict
3. Involvement in the child welfare system
4. Neighborhood danger/limited resources
Barbarin (2002)
Which brain structure detects emotionally significant stimuli, especially fear
Amygdala
Which of the following best explains how emotions influence learning and memory?
A) Emotions only affect short-term memory.
B) Emotions can alter dopamine levels and neural activity that strengthen long-term memory.
C) Emotions have no measurable effect on the brain.
D) Emotions block all forms of reasoning.
B
Name one reason games are valuable and beneficial in classroom
They promote social-emotional learning, engagement, and positive emotions through collaboration.
What is the term referring to the emotion-based processes that help guide judgment and apply knowledge meaningfully to real-world contexts
hint: early-onset prefrontal patients may be suffering from the loss of this ability
emotional rudder
What emotional milestones do school-aged children typically reach, and how do these milestones support their social and academic development?
Children are increasingly able to identify emotions and to interpret them within specific social contexts. Children's developing skills in emotional understanding permit them to navigate the complex social and academic school environment and to develop prosocial behaviors.
Children also develop greater ability to manage emotional reactions (inhibitory control skills).
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is important for
integrating emotional and cognitive functions, helping to regulate behavior, attention, and decision-making
True or False: Emotions always help learning by increasing attention and memory.
False. Strong emotions can sometimes interfere with learning by occupying attention or working memory resources.
A teacher redesigns her exams to include multiple-choice questions, allow retakes, and clearly explain grading criteria. What psychological mechanism best explains the reduction in students’ test anxiety?
A) These changes reduce the task’s subjective value.
B) These changes make the exam less cognitively demanding.
C) These changes increase students’ perceived control.
D) These changes increase students’ external motivation.
C
What is the similarities and differences between patients with childhood- and adult-onset prefrontal brain damage?
Similarities: both groups can reason about traditional cognitive problems in lab settings and both have normal IQs
Differences: childhood-onset patients never have learned the rules that govern social and moral behavior, while adult-onset patients know right from wrong in the lab but are unable to use this information to guide their behaviors
Which combination of brain regions plays key roles in emotional autobiographical memory, particularly in the processes of emotional acquisition, extinction, and recovery?
A) Occipital lobe, cerebellum, and brainstem
B) Hypothalamus, medulla, and motor cortex
C) Temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and thalamus
D) Amygdala, prefrontal lobe, and hippocampus
D
The intensity and duration of stress — mild, short-term stress can enhance learning, while chronic or excessive stress impairs it.
Why might teachers’ awareness of their balance between positive and negative feedback be important for students’ emotions?
Because positive feedback fosters supportive relationships and positive emotions, while excessive negative feedback can create conflict and negative emotions that hinder learning.
Based on the reading, how do emotional thoughts and rational thinking interact?
- High reason/Rational thought can inform emotional thought (e.g., decision making about ethics)
- Emotional thoughts are involved in producing automatic moral decision making that underlies intuitive notions of good and evil
what is the term for describing the ability of humans to be able to infer emotions, beliefs, and intentions of others despite that none of these concepts are directly observable
Mentalizing
Which brain region is primarily activated by intrinsic motivation—doing something because it feels satisfying?
A) Posterior cingulate cortex
B) Amygdala
C) Insular cortex
D) Hippocampus
C
Which brain axis becomes overactive during chronic stress, leading to impaired learning and synaptic plasticity?
A) Reticular-activating system
B) Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
C) Sympathetic nervous system
D) Cortical-striatal loop
B
What is attributional retraining, and how does it influence emotion and motivation?
It teaches students to attribute failure to controllable factors (e.g., effort, strategy use) rather than fixed ability, promoting persistence and positive emotions.
What are two elements of emotions?
1. the perception of an emotionally competent trigger (a situation either real or imagined that has the power to induce an emotion)
2. a chain of physiological events that will enable changes in both the body and mind
Can you define socio-emotional learning? or list five core skills of socio-emotional learning.
SEL is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions
Five core skills: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making
There are two pathways for emotional processing: the cortical pathway and the subcortical pathway. Functionally, how do they differ?
- The cortical pathway handles visual information after it enters the retina and is transmitted to primary visual cortex, then passes to the temporalis inferior regions, and then to the amygdala --> conscious processing of emotions
- In the subcortical pathway, visual information can be transferred to the amygdala via the epithalamus and the pulvinar. It is associated with the automatic and subconscious processing of emotions
By Pekrun (2002), emotion affects academic achievement through the intermediary mechanism of cognition and motivation, such as the students' learning motivation, learning strategies, cognitive resources, and self-monitoring.
What is positive education? what are some practice of positive education
an approach that combines traditional academic learning with principles from positive psychology (a discipline that focuses on the strengths, positive emotions, beneficial relationships, and feelings of accomplishment of individuals, and is also concerned with what engages them and creates meaning in their lives) to improve both student achievement and well-being.
Examples: mindfulness training, sharing positive news, performing acts of kindness, or focusing on strengths