Influence of an emotional induction procedure on 4th and 5th graders’ emotional feelings and spelling performances

This paper aims to study the effect of an emotional induction procedure on fourth and fifth graders’ emotional feelings and spelling performances. In reference to Cuisinier et al. (2010), who showed an impact of emotion on cognition via an increase in spelling errors during dictation, we tested the hypothesis that the emotional valence of a text (neutral, sad, or happy) will have an indirect impact on children’s cognitive capacities. In creating a cognitive overload, emotions should have a negative effect on attentional resources necessary for spelling processes. Therefore, taking dictation of a text that has previously been read should lead to an increase in the proportion of spelling errors. In order to test this hypothesis, the initial experiment was duplicated with some modifications in the procedure. The emotion-inducing texts were read twice, and children’s emotional feeling was measured three times. Results revealed an effect of the emotion on both feelings and spelling performance. Moreover, the dictation exercise led to an increase in negative emotional feeling. The relations between emotion and cognition and the effect of an emotional content on children’s spelling capacities are discussed.