Kort's Model of Emotion

Emotions and Learning
January 12, 2004

Background
• Four most common emotions appearing on
theorists’ list are fear, anger, sadness, and
joy
• Plutchik (1980) distinguishes among eight
basic emotions: fear, anger, sorrow, joy,
disgust, acceptance, anticipation, and
surprise

More Background
• Ekman (1992) has focused on a set of from
six to eight basic emotions
• However none of the existing frameworks
address emotions commonly seen in SMET
learning (Science, Mathematics,
Engineering, and Technology)

Negative Affect
Emotions and Learning Cycle
Disappointment
Puzzlement
Confusion
Frustration
Discard
Misconceptions
Constructive learning
II
III
Un-learning
I
IV
Awe
Satisfaction
Curiosity
Positive Affect
Hopefulness
Fresh Research

Path of the Cycle
• Student ideally begins in quadrant I or II
– In quadrant one the student might be curious
or fascinated about a new topic of interest
– In quadrant two the student might be puzzled
and motivated to reduce confusion
– In either case the student begins in the top half
of the space, if their focus is on constructing or
testing knowledge

Path of the Cycle (Cont.)
• Quadrant Three
– Deconstruction of knowledge
– Emotions may be negative
– cognitive focus on elimination of misconceptions
– As the student consolidates his/her knowledge with
awareness of a sense of making progress, he or she
may move to quadrant four

Path of the Cycle (Cont.)
• Quadrant Four
– Recovers hopefulness as knowledge set is now
cleared of unworkable and unproductive
concepts
– Getting a fresh idea propels the student back to
the upper half of the diagram, most likely in
quadrant one

5 Candidate Axes
• Anxiety-Confidence
• Boredom-Fascination
• Frustration-Euphoria
• Dispirited-Encouraged
• Terror-Enchantment

Emotion Sets Possibly Relevant
to Learning
-1.0 -0.5 0 +0.5 +1.0
Anxiety Worry Discomfort Comfort Hopeful Confident
Ennui Boredom Indifference Interest Curiosity Intrigue
Frustration Puzzlement Confusion Insight Enlightenment Epiphany
Dispirited Disappointment Dissatisfaction Satisfied Thrilled Enthusiastic
Terror Dread Apprehension Calm Anticipatory Excited

The Emotion Axis
• A Model of Emotions
• Could be one of the specific axes from
previous slide
• Could symbolize the n-vector of all
relevant emotion axes (allowing multidimensional
combinations of emotions)
• Positive valence emotions on the right;
negative valence emotions on the left

Knowledge Axis
• A third axis (not shown) is called the
knowledge axis
– Extending out of the plane of the page
– When this third dimension is added, one
obtains an excelsior spiral when
evolving/developing knowledge
– Learner may experience multiple cycles,
gradually moving up the knowledge axis

Any Questions??