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

This paper aimed at studying the effect of an emotional induction procedure on 4th and 5th 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 according to which the emotional valence of a text (neutral, sad or happy) should indirectly have an 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, handling a dictation following a text previously 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 emotional texts have been read twice and children's emotional feeling was measured three times. Results revealed an effect of the emotion on the feelings and on spelling performance as well. Moreover, the dictation exercise led to an increase in the negative emotional feeling. The relations between emotion and cognition and the effect of an emotional content on children's spelling capacities are discussed.