The Influence Of Emotion To Working Memory Span And Mathematics Problem Solving Of Elementary Students

The new curriculum reform proposed the goal of the affection instruction explicitly, and unified the emotion and the teaching. At present, many researchers have already to start to pay attention to the influence of the negative emotion (such as anxiety) to mathematics problem solving. But the research about positive emotion is poor. So talking about the role of positive and negative emotion in teaching is very important.This research includes two experiments. Students of the grade four in the elementary school take part in the two experiments. The first experiment discussed the influence of the different emotion to the students'working memory span. Though show the students to watch different kinds of short films to induce their different kinds of emotions. And discuss the difference of the students'working memory span between the specific emotion condition and the baseline level. The second experiment discuss about the influence of the different emotion to the student's ability of solving mathematics problem. Though show the students to watch different kinds of short films to induce their different kinds of emotions. And discuss the difference of the students'ability of solving two kinds of mathematics problem between the different emotion conditions. The research obtains the following results:Firstly, in the condition of the positive emotion, students'working memory span was significantly higher than the baseline level. In the condition of the negative emotion, students'working memory span was significantly lower than the baseline level.Secondly, between the working memory span and the type of mathematics score, there is a high relation. In working memory test, the students whose mathematics score type is"good"have significant higher score than the"middle"; the students whose mathematics score is"middle"have significant higher score than the"bad".Thirdly, on total score and inconsistent problem score, students under the positive emotion condition have significant higher score than students under negative emotion condition.Fourthly, on the total score and inconsistent problem score, the students whose mathematics score type is"good"have significant higher score than the"middle"and the"bad"; the students whose mathematics score is"middle"have significant higher score than the"bad".