Abstract:

From their earliest years, both at home and in school, children are exposed to emotionally charged information. In preschool, emotional skills are addressed and cultivated: children are encouraged to experience, identify, and express emotions. For several decades, a substantial body of research in cognitive psychology has investigated the influence of emotions on cognition. It is now widely accepted that emotions are an integral part of cognitive functioning, shaping our judgments, decision-making, and learning processes. However, very few studies have examined the influence of emotional content on both surface-level (memorization) and inferential comprehension in young preschool children.

The aim of this study is to explore the influence of emotions on the comprehension (memorization and inference) of visual scenes in pre-literate children. To this end, 68 children around the age of 3 answered surface and inferential questions about emotionally charged illustrations. The results indicated that emotional valence had no significant effect on memorization. However, inferential comprehension scores were higher for positively valenced images compared to negatively valenced ones. These findings suggest that emotional valence influences the generation of inferences during the viewing of visual scenes by preschool children.

As the first year of preschool marks a child’s initial experience with formal education, teaching practices and educational content should take this emotional influence into account to enhance learning efficiency and foster emotional competence from an early age. At a time when children's literature is widely used in preschool to support language acquisition, mastery of oral language, and early exposure to written texts, it is essential to investigate the emotional impact conveyed by both the text and the illustrations within these educational materials.

Keywords:

Emotion, picture, memory, comprehension, Preschoolers, Education.