Positive affective learning improves memory

Abstract

It is well documented that affective learning materials can impact learning process, but it is unclear that what the role of affective learning-irrelevant stimuli is. To tackle this issue, this study provided evidence that affective value of irrelevant stimuli can be transferred to learning materials and influences the learning process. Using a variant of minimal affective learning paradigm, the experiment demonstrated that only one occasion of neutral-affective pairing can lead to affective learning, and showed an advantage of positive affective learning on the improvement of face memory. Implications for the design of affective human-computer interactive system are discussed. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.