by Kimberley Hare
Scientists have long known that the amygdala, our brain’s emotional centre, is critically involved in the ability to remember events infused with emotional significance. New research now sheds light on why this may be so The Anderson and Phelps study demonstrated, perhaps for the first time, that the amygdala is responsible for influences on our emotional perception; and, therefore, directly impacts the ease by which emotional events reach our awareness.
The Attentional Blink (AB) is a refractory response that occurs after a person actively perceives a given stimulus. The researchers measured the attentional blink of subjects while they viewed words flashed on a screen in rapid succession. The subjects were instructed to be on the lookout for the appearance of two green target words occurring among a stream of black words. When shown an emotionally neutral target word (i.e. house or laundry), subjects had difficulty perceiving the word if it was shown within the refractory period. However, when the target word was emotionally evocative in nature (i.e., cancer, rape), the impairment caused by the attentional blink was significantly diminished.
The researchers then administered the same test to persons with lesions on the amygdala. Unlike neurologically intact subjects, patients with amygdala lesions did not show enhanced awareness for the emotional word targets. This impaired reaction was specifically true among patients with lesions of the left but not the right amygdala.
These findings suggest that the brain’s perceptual systems are finely tuned to the occurrence of emotionally significant stimuli—events that require much less attention or effort to reach our conscious awareness compared to less stimulating or neutral events. In addition, the amygdala’s location in the midbrain and its connections to other brain structures suggests that it is strategically placed to modulate perceptual experience itself.
Whatever we focus on in our minds comes with an associated emotional response. Thoughts are always associated with subtle and not so subtle emotional feelings.
In order to affect a person’s emotions, it is necessary to affect their internal representations – what they see and hear on the inside. There are six basic techniques to create evocative internal representations:
1. Impact Words
Words with pre-existing anchors, positive or negative:
Love
Hatred
Playful
Wonderful
Meaty
Racist
Terror
Bountiful
Awe-inspiring
2. Sensory Language
Words and phrases that appeal to each of the five senses:
See
Soft
Solid
Shrill
Smelly
Crackle
Juicy
Rough
Twinkle
Harmonious
3. Elicitation Questions
Questions that focus people on emotion-laden memories:
Who was your first hero?
When did you have your first real kiss?
4. Universal Experiences
Common experiences that carry with them emotional states:
Leaving home for the first time
Meeting your future spouse
The smell of fresh-brewed coffee
Passing your driving test
5. Word Pictures
These are analogies and metaphors, which evoke emotional associations:
A broken heart
A piece of cake
A walk in the park
Tickled pink
A bowl of cherries
Putting his back to the wall
6. Stories
Stories can include all the other techniques. They can be true, apocryphal, metaphorical or even fantasy (“Once upon a time…”)
Yet more evidence that when it comes to helping create learning that’s sticky, State is pretty much Everything.
Actions for this week:
- When introducing new material, engage learners with hands-on activities that stimulate multiple senses and spark meaningful connections. For example, make use of vivid storytelling, metaphor, humour, surprise, novelty, and movement.
- How can you engage emotions more at the beginning, middle, and end of a learning session?
- Make ample use of audiovisual materials such as photographs, colour, videos, and music.
- When appropriate, encourage learners to relate personal stories or experiences to the material.
