Friday, October 15, 2004
Online Article - Emotional Learning by Learning Lab Denmark
We are not nearly as rational as we like to think we are. Our emotions play a key role when we learn, and our senses aid us in choosing and learning, even if we are mostly unaware of the process. Quarterly Online spoke to neuroscientists Morten Kringelbach and Christian Gerlach about 'emotional' learning and the importance of the senses.
Learning is improved if our senses are brought into play, which means that good teaching speaks to more than just our intellect. This is the basis of a great deal of brain research at Learning Lab Denmark and other places where researchers attempt to facilitate better learning by improving our understanding of the impact emotions have on learning. One of these researchers is Morten Kringelbach, who works at The Queens College at the University of Oxford, and whose next book “Brainscapes. The emotional brain” (Danish: Hjernerum. Den følelsesfulde hjerne) will be published by People’s Press and Learning Lab Denmark later this year.
The increased focus on emotions’ role in learning processes also means an increased focus on the role that our senses play. Morten Kringelbach explains:
“Learning calls for emotional evaluations, and these evaluations are based on much more information that that provided by rational evaluations.”
Our emotions and our rationality serve the same overall purpose in our daily lives, which is to identify an optimal solution to the problems we encounter, although we do not normally think consciously of this process, because the emotional insights are often based on sub-conscious sensory input. These sensory inputs play an important role for our learning, but we often underestimate their importance for our ability to interpret and evaluate.
