Affective Dimensions Research Articles

The effectiveness of ChatGPT in assisting high school students in programming learning: evidence from a quasi-experimental research

ABSTRACT Programming education gains importance in high schools as the digital age progresses. However, the openness and adaptability of programming languages present unique challenges for instructional practices compared to other subjects. While traditional instructional tools offer limited support, ChatGPT, a groundbreaking Generative Artificial Intelligence, has shown impressive capabilities in natural language processing and knowledge generation. This study explored whether ChatGPT can transcend existing limitations and improve programming education through a quasi-experimental approach with post-hoc interviews in high school classrooms. A total of 153 students participated, and the results from MANCOVA and ANCOVA analyses revealed that students using ChatGPT reported lower levels of flow experience, self-efficacy, and learning achievement compared to those utilizing conventional methods. Post-hoc interviews further revealed that students felt ChatGPT's effectiveness in facilitating their programming learning fell short of their initial expectations. These findings highlight the need to carefully consider the complexity of programming learning tasks and students' cognitive, affective, and interactive dimensions when integrating AI technologies into education. We discuss the implications and provide thorough pedagogical strategies, specifically the guidance–practice–transformation (G–P–T) mode, to maximize the potential of AI tools and support high school programming education, emphasizing the balance of technological innovation with learning best practices.

Predicting image memorability from evoked feelings.

While viewing a visual stimulus, we often cannot tell whether it is inherently memorable or forgettable. However, the memorability of a stimulus can be quantified and partially predicted by a collection of conceptual and perceptual factors. Higher-level properties that represent the "meaningfulness" of a visual stimulus to viewers best predict whether it will be remembered or forgotten across a population. Here, we hypothesize that the feelings evoked by an image, operationalized as the valence and arousal dimensions of affect, significantly contribute to the memorability of scene images. We ran two complementary experiments to investigate the influence of affect on scene memorability, in the process creating a new image set (VAMOS) of hundreds of natural scene images for which we obtained valence, arousal, and memorability scores. From our first experiment, we found memorability to be highly reliable for scene images that span a wide range of evoked arousal and valence. From our second experiment, we found that both valence and arousal are significant but weak predictors of image memorability. Scene images were most memorable if they were slightly negatively valenced and highly arousing. Images that were extremely positive or unarousing were most forgettable. Valence and arousal together accounted for less than 8% of the variance in image memorability. These findings suggest that evoked affect contributes to the overall memorability of a scene image but, like other singular predictors, does not fully explain it. Instead, memorability is best explained by an assemblage of visual features that combine, in perhaps unintuitive ways, to predict what is likely to stick in our memory.

Climate change is (NOT) funny: insights from a climate change comedy event

In recent years there has been an increasing call for new modes of climate change communication. These calls have gone beyond classic consensus-building and fact-sharing to addressing affective dimensions and meaning-making in relation to the climate crisis. In this article we reflect on a proof-of-concept climate change comedy project — “Climate Change is NOT Funny!”. Building on audience and performer insights, we reflect on the effectiveness and affective dimensions of comedy as a climate change communication method, as well as institutional and funding constraints on delivery. Finally, we introduce how we designed our project to go on making an impact beyond the grant's lifespan. By empowering professional comedians to embed new research-informed climate change material into their regular sets, we argue that our approach can amplify the reach of climate communication activities, and in turn provide new forums for individuals to engage with the most pressing aspects of the climate crisis.

Can Gamification Foster Trust-Building in Human-Robot Collaboration? An Experiment in Virtual Reality

Abstract With the increasing deployment of robots to support humans in various activities, a crucial factor that has surfaced as a precondition for successful human-robot interaction (HRI) is the human’s level of trust in the robotic companion. A phenomenon that has recently shifted into the foreground for its potential to influence cognitive and affective dimensions in humans is gamification. However, there is a dearth of knowledge whether and how gamification can be employed to effectively cultivate trust in HRI. The present study investigates and compares the effects of three design interventions (i.e., non-gamified vs. gameful design vs. playful design) on cognitive and affective trust between humans and an autonomous mobile collaborative robot (cobot) in a virtual reality (VR) training experiment. The results reveal that affective trust and specific trust antecedents (i.e., a robot’s likability and perceived intelligence) are most significantly developed via playful design, revealing the importance of incorporating playful elements into a robot’s appearance, demeanor, and interaction to establish an emotional connection and trust in HRI.

Translating Lynching: Conceptual Challenges and Affective Dimensions

Translating Lynching: Conceptual Challenges and Affective Dimensions

Do we feel colours? A systematic review of 128years of psychological research linking colours and emotions.

Colour is an integral part of natural and constructed environments. For many, it also has an aesthetic appeal, with some colours being more pleasant than others. Moreover, humans seem to systematically and reliably associate colours with emotions, such as yellow with joy, black with sadness, light colours with positive and dark colours with negative emotions. To systematise such colour-emotion correspondences, we identified 132 relevant peer-reviewed articles published in English between 1895 and 2022. These articles covered a total of 42,266 participants from 64 different countries. We found that all basic colour categories had systematic correspondences with affective dimensions (valence, arousal, power) as well as with discrete affective terms (e.g., love, happy, sad, bored). Most correspondences were many-to-many, with systematic effects driven by lightness, saturation, and hue ('colour temperature'). More specifically, (i) LIGHT and DARK colours were associated with positive and negative emotions, respectively; (ii) RED with empowering, high arousal positive and negative emotions; (iii) YELLOW and ORANGE with positive, high arousal emotions; (iv) BLUE, GREEN, GREEN-BLUE, and WHITE with positive, low arousal emotions; (v) PINK with positive emotions; (vi) PURPLE with empowering emotions; (vii) GREY with negative, low arousal emotions; and (viii) BLACK with negative, high arousal emotions. Shared communication needs might explain these consistencies across studies, making colour an excellent medium for communication of emotion. As most colour-emotion correspondences were tested on an abstract level (i.e., associations), it remains to be seen whether such correspondences translate to the impact of colour on experienced emotions and specific contexts.

Exploring Preservice Teachers’ Perceived Emotions, Professional Accountability, and Action-Taking Dispositions Towards Language Assessment Scenarios

This exploratory case study investigates the emotional responses, professional accountability, and action-taking dispositions of 150 Chilean prospective English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers towards language assessment scenarios. Despite the growing interest in assessment, little research has focused on the affective experiences of trainee teachers. Participants completed the Emotionally Loaded Situations Questionnaire, which assessed their reactions to situations where students fail language assessments. The study reveals that these situations elicited negative emotional responses, leading to a diminished sense of teacher identity due to perceived inefficiencies in teaching and assessment practices. The findings also highlight the teachers’ dispositions towards taking corrective actions, such as revisiting teaching and assessment strategies, reinforcing assessment content, and improving future practices. As to professional accountability, trainee teachers acknowledge that their teaching performance has a direct effect on their students’ assessment results. These outcomes emphasize the need for further research on the affective dimension in language assessment to better support the professional development of future teachers.

Unveiling subjective well-being: the role of reward processing and resilience

Abstract Clarifying factors contributing to subjective well-being (SWB) is paramount to the understanding optimal functioning and positive human experience. Among these, reward processing appears promising, with evidence suggesting it may contribute to resilience, to further promote SWB. However, direct evidence for this hypothesis is lacking, and indirect evidence is scant and scattered. Building on these caveats, this study sought (1) to investigate associations between reward processing and resilience with SWB, and (2) to test the mediating role of resilience in the association between reward processing and SWB. Aligned with recommendations suggesting that using multiple indicators and distinguishing between cognitive and affective dimensions of SWB may refine its understanding, multiple SWB measures were employed. Participants (N = 300; m age = 32.53; SD = 12.30) completed cognitive (i.e., satisfaction with life) and affective measures of SWB (i.e., positive and negative affect), and stress, as well as scales evaluating reward processing and resilience. Findings indicated that reward processing was positively associated with resilience, and all SWB dimensions including satisfaction with life and positive affect, and negatively associated with negative affect and stress. Moreover, resilience mediated associations between reward processing and all SWB dimensions. These findings extend existing knowledge on SWB and provide a refined understanding of this construct through the lens of reward processing and resilience. If replicated in longitudinal and experimental studies, they may have important practical implications for interventions targeting reward processing and resilience.

‘Citizenship from below’: integration as assemblage for immigrant young people volunteers in Canada

ABSTRACT One prominent issue facing Canada as an immigrant society pertains to the social and cultural integration of immigrant young people, who are often criticised in academic and popular discourse as passive citizens. Adopting an explanatory sequential mixed method approach, this study examines the civic engagement and participation of immigrant young people, via volunteering, as a ‘citizenship from below’. The concept of assemblage as a theoretical framework allows for an understanding of social integration as practices of ‘citizenship from below’ and social formations that are affective, relational and configured. One layer of social integration views immigrant young people volunteering as an assemblage that provides them with agency evolving over time as they mature and move more towards a deeper connection to community to effect change as a form of lived citizenship. Second, developing a sense of belonging and identity with Canada illustrates an affective dimension or layer in the assemblage of social integration. The study also suggests that young people volunteering-as-assemblage is an integral part of social integration and citizenship that is endlessly being socially produced and assembled. The findings challenge the diffuse negative perceptions about immigrant young people as passive citizens and extant knowledge about the relationships among immigration, integration, citizenship and belonging.

Studying affect through discourse theory

Abstract This article presents a methodological argument for examining the affective dimensions of political identity formation, with a pivotal focus on the role of practice. Grounded in a psychoanalytically inspired discourse theory framework, it advocates for expanding research beyond textual sources to investigate the affective investment inherent in political engagement and the process of collective identity formation. Through an examination of two empirical case studies — the Just Stop Oil movement in the United Kingdom and the ascent of Javier Milei in Argentinean politics — the article proposes four principles to study the articulation of political identities through practice: Signifiers are not just words; beyond counting words; policy is central, and fantasy is a cipher. By underscoring fantasy as a critical dimension in identity formation and, suggesting that, by transcending the conventional Schmittian friend/enemy divide, novel avenues for analysing collective identities will surface.

Emotional Experiences and its Influence on Identity Construction: English Language Teachers’ Narratives

Teacher emotion is a relatively less explored area in the context of English language education research in general and teacher professional identity in particular. This study reports the emotional experiences of four secondary-level English language teachers from public schools in Nepal, exploring their life stories through informal conversations and in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis of their life stories indicated that as a roller coaster ride, teachers underwent positive, happy, and exciting moments to negative emotional experiences like sadness, dissatisfaction, humiliation, and vulnerability influencing their becoming. Vulnerability emerged as significant motif in their stories, which, though generally considered a negative emotion, immensely contributed to teachers’ development. In addition, emotional attachment with students, colleagues, and school; compliment and appreciation by colleagues,parents, and students; and students’ success and satisfaction enhanced self-esteem and commitment to teaching, positively contributing to identity construction. In contrast, sad and depressing moments arising from students’ disruptive behaviour, exclusion of teachers in crucial decision-making, and misrepresentation and misrecognition of their contributions by seniors and administrators in their discourses posed a crisis on their identity, stimulating feelings like quitting the job. The study’s findings implied an urge to pay due consideration to the affective dimension of teachers by policymakers and administrators for their professional development and identity construction, thereby enhancing students’ learning outcomes.

Exploring the Interplay Between Catastrophizing and Endometriosis Pain Through Two-Wave and Intensive Longitudinal Data.

Endometriosis, characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus, results in chronic pelvic pain. However, lesion characteristics alone cannot fully explain the complexity of endometriosis-related pain. Pain catastrophizing, a cognitive process that influences pain perception, has traditionally been studied through cross-sectional or two-wave designs, which struggle to capture its dynamic interplay with endometriosis pain. To address these gaps, our study explores the bidirectional relationship between pain catastrophizing and pain outcomes-including intensity, frequency, and flares-over a detailed four-week period, an aggregated 30-day timeframe, and across sensory and affective dimensions. A Latent Growth Curve Model assessed the relationship between pain catastrophizing, initial pain levels, and endometriosis pain trajectories over four weeks. Additionally, four mediator models explored how baseline pain catastrophizing affects various pain aspects, including sensory and affective dimensions, and its subsequent influence on pain catastrophizing. Results indicate that high levels of pain catastrophizing significantly escalate endometriosis pain over four weeks, affecting average pain intensity, episode frequency, and flares over 30 days. Pain catastrophizing also adversely impacts sensory and affective dimensions. These elements partially mediate baseline pain catastrophizing's effect on week five levels, revealing a bidirectional relationship. Notably, while the affective dimension amplifies subsequent pain catastrophizing, the sensory dimension exerts a contrasting negative influence. The study highlights the bidirectional influence between pain catastrophizing and several aspects of endometriosis-related pain. Sensory and affective dimensions play distinct roles, with implications for personalized interventions. Limitations and clinical relevance are discussed.

Strengthening collective action: Role of social capital in motivating third-sector workers

This study highlights the importance of social capital within third sector organizations, as in other sectors of the economy, and confirms the influence of social capital on human capital. In this case, it contributes to the analysis of the structure and quality of relationships among members of a social organization, which enables motivation and commitment to collective action. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, from a 45-item survey applied to 190 workers in social organizations; the constructs were reconfigured for the construction of the model of organizational social capital, was carried out using the structural equation methodology. It is argued that the cognitive and structural dimensions of social capital affect its relational dimension in terms of identification, trust and cooperation, which in turn influences worker motivation and other key aspects of human capital. The relational dimension, measured by workers’ identification, trust, and cooperation, has significant effects on their motivation and work engagement, which leads to important practical considerations for human resource policies in these organizations. The article contributes to the existing literature on human capital management by exploring the perception of workers in nonprofit organizations that are part of Ecuador’s third sector.

Unpacking the Antecedents of Boredom and Its Impact on University Learners’ Engagement in Languages Other Than English: A Qualitative Study in the Distance Online Learning Context

ABSTRACTAlthough psychological factors such as emotion and engagement have gained increasing attention for their role in language learning success, a substantial gap remains in understanding the sources of boredom and its impact on learners’ engagement, whether behavioural, affective or cognitive, in languages other than English (LOTE). This study employs questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews to examine the cause‐and‐effect relationships between antecedents, boredom and engagement in a distance online learning context among university Chinese as a second language (CSL) teachers and learners (N = 17) from China. The findings suggest that (1) boredom is primarily a student‐oriented construct influenced by physical fatigue and academic regression. Teacher‐related factors, such as a slow and predictable teaching pace, dull classroom design, lack of questioning, explanations and untimely feedback, also contribute to boredom, along with learning tasks (e.g., repetitive, mechanical and over‐challenging tasks), and internet‐related issues. Boredom is notably more present in listening courses rather than in integrated Chinese courses. (2) Boredom primarily affected learners’ behavioural engagement (e.g., distraction, sleepiness, mind‐wandering, and task abandonment) and subsequently impaired their cognitive (e.g., concentration, comprehension) and emotional (e.g., anxiety, anger) layers. This study elucidated the intricate interconnections between layers within engagement and beyond, and the interrelationships among a list of factors across conative (engagement, effort and motivation), affective (boredom, anxiety and anger) and cognitive (concentration, comprehension and reasoning) dimensions in a domain‐specific and skill‐specific manner. In closing, pedagogical implications for both educators and learners are discussed to reduce boredom and enhance learners’ classroom engagement, ultimately improving learning outcomes and the overall language learning experience.

Exploring the Cognitive, Affective, and Conative Factors of Bystander Intervention to Improve Protective Measures During Health Emergencies

ABSTRACT This study examines the factors shaping individuals’ reactions to health-protective norm violations through the lens of cognitive accessibility, the risk-as-feelings hypothesis, and the tripartite decision-making framework. By surveying 1,426 U.S. college students, we found that frequent exposure to health information in the media is associated with an increased tendency to adopt health-protective measures and support bystander intervention (upstanding) intentions. From a theoretical perspective, the results underscore the significant impact of the conative (behavioral) dimension on bystander intervention intention, alongside contributions from the affective and cognitive dimensions. Health communication practitioners should plan frequency-enhancing media strategies to effectively reach their target audience. Well-targeted and repeated exposure to vaccine information may help address health norm violations by correcting deviant behaviors.

Caring with abject urban animals: Tensions between exclusion and inclusion of Egyptian geese in the city

In the context of current debates on care in animal geographies, this article examines care practices for Egyptian geese in the German city of Frankfurt am Main, drawing on empirical research. Since urban policies, legislation, discourses and related affects frame Egyptian geese as invasive, polluting and health-threatening, I conceptualise the geese as abject urban animals. Their constitution as abject depends essentially on the fact that they inhabit urban spaces, but politics consider the city to be the wrong place for them. Therefore, Egyptian geese are excluded from the city, both imaginatively and spatially. However, affective and embodied entanglements form between the geese and some people, leading them to care for the animals. Through the practices of feeding, aiding injuries and political advocacy, the carers work for the inclusion of the animals as significant co-inhabitants of the city. This article aims to explore the complex tensions between the exclusion of Egyptian geese in urban politics and the attempts made by individuals to include them in the city through their care practices. This proves especially advantageous for research on care as specific links between affective and political dimensions of care become apparent.

The Influence of Work Engagement on Employee Affect and Creativity: Insights from Occupational Mental Health.

Affect plays a pivotal role in shaping employees' work performance and mental health, with growing recognition of its capacity to drive creativity. However, the differential impacts of positive and negative affect on creative performance remain a subject of debate. This study aims to compare the relationships between high- and low-arousal affect, as well as PANA dimensions of affect, and creative performance, emphasizing the mediating role of work engagement from an occupational mental health perspective. A survey was conducted involving 278 employees and their managers across 25 companies in China. The findings reveal significant associations between high-arousal positive affect, low-arousal positive affect, high-arousal negative affect, and low-arousal negative affect with both work engagement and creative performance. Moreover, the results indicate that work engagement partially mediates the relationship between high-arousal affect and creative performance while fully mediating the relationship between low-arousal affect and creativity. These findings underscore the importance of occupational mental health-particularly work engagement-in fostering employee creativity and highlight its critical role in organizational management strategies.

LEARNER ENGAGEMENT WITH WRITTEN FEEDBACK: A CASE STUDY OF LOW-PROFICIENCY L2 LEARNERS IN ACADEMIC WRITING

This study explores the engagement of low-proficiency second language (L2) learners with teacher written corrective feedback (WCF) in academic writing. Drawing upon Fredricks et al.’s (2004) engagement framework, the study investigates students’ cognitive, behavioural, and affective dimensions of engagement. Six university students participated, and data were collected through writing drafts, verbal reports, and semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed that students exhibited diverse engagement behaviours, such as strictly following feedback, incorrect rectification, no rectification, and removal. While most students demonstrated behavioural engagement by revising texts, their cognitive engagement varied due to limited understanding of feedback. Students also displayed mixed affective responses, including happiness, confusion, helplessness, and worries, influenced by feedback explicitness and proficiency levels. The study highlights the complexity of learner engagement with WCF and emphasizes the need for teachers to consider individual differences, students’ revision processes, and beliefs when evaluating feedback effectiveness. KEYWORDS: Teacher Written Corrective Feedback, Learner Engagement, Low-Proficiency L2 Learners, Cognitive Engagement, Behavioural Engagement, Affective Engagement, Academic Writing

"We're Going to Kill Your Father": Disruptive Play and Its Affective Dimensions

To exclusively align children’s play with joy limits the possibility of understanding what play means for children when it does not fall neatly into the comfortable categories of being normal, safe, kind, or caring. When play is risky and uncomfortable, wild and chaotic, when it shocks and challenges normative conventions—especially in schools—adults consider it disruptive. In this article, we examine a kindergartener’s artistic production of “demonic gingerbread people” using two layers to read this play event. Using a critical childhoods lens, we propose empathy as an alternative to jumping immediately to intervention in response to disruptive play. Using affect theory, we think and experiment with these gingerbread productions to consider the affordances of approaching students' disruptive play with wonder. This layered approach may attune us to new possibilities for conceptualizing children’s subversive play.

Graph analysis of guilt processing network highlights links with subclinical anxiety and self-blame.

Maladaptive forms of guilt, such as excessive self-blame, are common characteristics of anxiety and depressive disorders. The underlying network consists of multiple associative areas, including the superior anterior temporal lobe (sATL), underlying the conceptual representations of social meaning, and fronto-subcortical areas involved in the affective dimension of guilt. Nevertheless, despite understanding the circuitry's anatomy, network-level changes related to subclinical anxiety and self-blaming behaviour have not been depicted. To fill this gap, we used graph theory analyses on a resting-state functional and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging dataset of 78 healthy adults (20 females, 20-35 years old). Within the guilt network, we found increased functional contributions of the left sATL for individuals with higher self-blaming, while functional isolation of the left pars opercularis and insula was related to higher trait anxiety. Trait anxiety was also linked to the structural network's mean clustering coefficient, with the circuitry's architecture favouring increased local information processing in individuals with increased anxiety levels, however, only when a highly specific subset of connections was considered. Previous research suggests that aberrant interactions between conceptual (sATL) and affective (fronto-limbic) regions underlie maladaptive guilt, and the current results align and expand on this theory by detailing network changes associated with self-blame and trait anxiety.