The effect of post-encoding emotional arousal on learning in young adults

A large body of relevant research have suggested that emotional arousal is a key element for memory enhancement. Studies have also shown that emotional arousal has an improvement impact for the preceding mundane information through memory consolidation. However, there seems to be insufficient research in the literature regarding the impact of post-encoding emotional arousal on learning an instructional material. Considering this need, the main aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of post-encoding emotional arousal on learning. For this purpose, two stories which were different in terms of arousal levels were produced for the post-encoding emotion manipulation. A total of 126 young adults from Çankaya University voluntarily participated in the experiment. After applying exclusion criteria (e.g., neurological and/or psychiatric disorder) the overall sample size was diminished to 99 aged between 19 and 29. In the experimental study, a between-subjects design was utilized in which half of the participants read the high-arousal story and the other half read the low-arousal one after reading the instructional material. While participants read the experimental materials, pupil sizes were recorded via an eye-tracker device. The test session of the experiment was performed one day after the study session. The results showed that the story in the experimental group was assessed as more emotional and memorized better than the story in the control group, indicating that the manipulation was effective. Also, pupil size measurements presented evidence for the physiological response for emotional arousal. On the other hand, there was not a statistically significant difference in the learning outcomes between the experimental and control conditions contrary to the expectation. Despite the absence of some expected results, the current study is anticipated to contribute to the relevant literature, as there is a lack of sufficient research examining post-encoding emotional arousal on learning an instructional material and by providing an example of the application of studies in the field of cognitive psychology in the context of education.