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On Emotions, Reasoning and Learning |
A patient named Elliot was referred to Dr. Antonio Damasio after others were dumbfounded over his condition. Elliot had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. As the tumor grew in his brain, it put enormous pressure on both frontal lobes. The tumor (which was the size of a small orange) and some surrounding damaged tissues were removed. By the time Elliot reached Damasio, he had experienced a radical personality change. He went from a successful business person, with a happy and stable family life, to a person who could not hold a job and had to be in the custody of a sibling. Elliot was unable to live appropriately in a community because he now lacked social intelligence.
When Elliot returned from the hospital people did not recognize him. He could not follow a schedule, motivate himself enough to get dressed in the morning, and was incapable of making the most basic of decisions. For instance, he would spend an entire afternoon at work deciding whether to classify a group of data by date or place. He lost his job and entered risky business ventures and eventually ended up bankrupt. His marriage ended in divorce, to which he quickly married and divorced again. He became dependent on his social security disability check to survive. Damasio describes his observations,
"The machinery for his decision making was so flawed that he could no longer be an effective social being. In spite of being confronted with the disastrous results of his decisions, he did not learn from his mistakes. . . . In some respects Elliot was new Phineas Gage, fallen from social grace, unable to reason and decide in ways conducive to the maintenance and betterment of himself and his family, no longer capable of succeeding as an independent human being."
On "intelligence" and personality tests, Elliot seemed like a normal, well-adjusted person, but something was obviously not working. After observing Elliot tell his tragic story without feeling anything, Damasio started concentrating on Elliot's emotional well-being. Damasio began to take note that Elliot always seemed to be detached from his feelings. Everything Elliot did was on the same monotone level: "I never saw a tinge of emotion in my many hours of conversation with him: no sadness, no impatience, no frustration with my incessant and repetitious questioning". An experiment by Daniel Tranel showing Elliot disturbing pictures of injured people, natural disasters, and complete destruction of communities elicited no emotional reaction in Elliot. The most insightful part of this experience was Elliot's own realization that his feelings had changed. He noted that before the surgery he would have reacted differently, but now he felt nothing. Damasio explains how much this affects life,
"Try to imagine it. Try to imagine not feeling pleasure when you contemplate a painting you love or hear a favorite piece of music. Try to imagine yourself forever robbed of that possibility and yet aware of the intellectual contents of the visual or musical stimulus, and also aware that once it did give you pleasure. We might summarize Elliot's predicament as to know but not to feel." This excerpt taken from "Emotions and Social Intelligence: Jane Braaten and Antonio Damasio" by Kaaren Williamsen, Gustavus Adolphus College, March 1995.
Have you ever wondered just why we have emotions? Indeed our emotions tell the world who we are, describe our essence as human beings, and are the medium through which we engage our outer world. But what are they actually for? The above described case of Elliot perhaps provides us with a scientific rational for our emotions. We, as Elliot once did, use our emotions to make rational decisions. Now that almost sounds contradictory, but it is true. Obviously, as we experience the world, we experience it, with our entire being. Our brain, if you will, recording millions of emotional snapshots as we go through life. And these emotional memories provide us an ever changing reference as to how we feel about events we encounter through the moments of our lives. We then carry these emotional learnings to each and every decision we are confronted with, and by combining fact with feeling, we decide. Elliot's inability to decide is related directly to his inability to feel emotion.
We have long approached learning with the idea that we are simply collecting facts and ideas and committing them to memory. This is only partially true. Actually as we learn, we mesh newly-acquired facts and ideas, with our past emotionally-charged experiences. Everything we learn and all that we commit to memory carries with it an emotional component and changes our perception of the world.
It is no mystery that we learn best when we are motivated to learn, indeed learning and emotion are inseparable. It has been demonstrated that high levels of positive emotion place us in the best position to learn. Conversely when we are under stressful conditions we learn poorly. It is essential that this new paradigm be carried into our classrooms.
"Where were you when the Twin Towers collapsed, or when the Challenger Space craft exploded? Can you remember receiving your high school diploma, your first kiss? Emotions have a profound impact on our memory and learning, and increasing usage of terms like "emotional intelligence" demonstrates a growing awareness of the important role that emotions play in one's successful negotiation throughout life. However, throughout history, emotions in the classroom have been strict taboo, and yet most teachers today would agree that students participate in class and learn best when they feel good about themselves and their lives. Nearly every aspect of our lives is influenced by the emotional state we experience at that moment - a response based on past experience, yet nobody understands precisely what is involved in the relationship between emotions and learning. We know a lot about the brain structures that underlie learning and memory, and those that regulate our emotions, but how do emotions actually influence learning? Can we enhance learning and memory by activating the brain circuits that stimulate positive emotions? How do we maintain positive emotions and ensure we block out negative ones? What is the best environment to nurture positive emotion? What are the cost benefits for schools? What are the physical influences on emotions, such as sleep, nutrition and exercise? And, whom do we focus on: peers, parents and teachers, or on children themselves? |
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