Motivational and emotional influences on learning.
What and how much is learned is influenced by the motivation. Motivation to learn, in turn,
is influenced by the individual's emotional states, beliefs, interests and goals, and habits
of thinking.
The rich internal world of thoughts, beliefs, goals, and expectations for success or failure can
enhance or interfere the learner's quality of thinking and information processing. Students' beliefs
about themselves as learners and the nature of learning have a marked influence on motivation.
Motivational and emotional factors also influence both the quality of thinking and information
processing as well as an individual's motivation to learn. Positive emotions, such as curiosity,
generally enhance motivation and facilitate learning and performance. Mild anxiety can also
enhance learning and performance by focusing the learner's attention on a particular task.
However, intense negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, panic, rage, insecurity) and related thoughts
(e.g., worrying about competence, ruminating about failure, fearing punishment, ridicule, or
stigmatizing labels) generally detract from motivation, interfere with learning, and contribute to low
performance.