Emotional responses during reading: Physiological responses predict real-time reading comprehension.

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between emotional responses and reading performance in middle-school students. Although a large number of prior studies have investigated the relationship between emotion and reading, those studies have concentrated primarily on relatively static and distal measures of emotion. In this research, we measured 7th-and 8th-grade students' (n = 44) emotional responses more proximally: during the reading tasks themselves. To do this, we used a cardiovascular indicator, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), that has been used frequently in psychophysiological studies of emotion but not, to our knowledge, in studies of reading. Results showed that the pattern of physiological response during reading predicted reading comprehension performance. Students with the most successful reading comprehension performance showed an initial orienting physiological response, followed by a lower threat physiological state when actually starting to read. Verbal retelling performance related strongly to emotional responses during reading, but multiple-choice performance was not related.

Identity and Epistemic Emotions During Knowledge Revision: A Potential Account for the Backfire Effect

“…We recommend that future research include process measures for these constructs, evinced in eye tracking, concurrent verbalizations, or reading times, which in turn could be instructionally scaffolded (Poitras & Trevors, 2012) and analyzed with mixed-method research design (Trevors, Feyzi-Behnagh, Azevedo, & Bouchet, 2016). Likewise, self-reported measurement of valence categories of emotion (e.g., negative emotions) can be complemented by additional analysis of discrete emotions (e.g., anxiety, confusion) and physiological measures, such as analysis of electrocardiograms or facial expressions (Daley, Willet, & Fischer, 2014;.…”

Calibration of Self‐Reports of Anxiety and Physiological Measures of Anxiety While Reading in Adults With and Without Reading Disability

“…Dynamic and simultaneous physiological measures provide a unique framework for understanding emotion and cognition that cannot be provided by static measures like self-reports (Daley, Willett, & Fischer, 2014). Dynamic and simultaneous physiological measures provide a unique framework for understanding emotion and cognition that cannot be provided by static measures like self-reports (Daley, Willett, & Fischer, 2014).…”

“…For instance, Everatt and Brannan (1996) gave students with RD and non-RD a spelling test either before or after a non-verbal task. Recently, Daley et al (2014) used a cardiovascular measure during a reading comprehension task. Everatt and Brannan suggested that the most plausible explanation for this was that the stress and anxiety caused by the spelling task carried over to the other tasks and impaired performance.…”

“…A possible objective method to assess anxiety level is to collect physiological measures of arousal. Dynamic and simultaneous physiological measures provide a unique framework for understanding emotion and cognition that cannot be provided by static measures like self-reports (Daley, Willett, & Fischer, 2014).…”

“…Calvo and Eysenck (1996) reported that anxious subjects are more likely to use the phonological loop as a compensatory strategy when the text is presented word by word. Recently, Daley et al (2014) used a cardiovascular measure during a reading comprehension task. The results showed that students with high performances in the tasks differed in the pattern of increase and then decrease in physiological response before starting to read.…”