Students, tasks and emotions: Identifying the contribution of emotions to studentsʹ reading of popular culture and popular science texts

In this investigation young adolescent students (N = 181) engaged in an interactive computer reading task. The aim was to explore sequences of studentsʹ affective responses to expository texts by identifying their character, intensity and their relationship with further text processing. Affective responses were measured using probes consisting of face icons and were recorded immediately prior to studentsʹ choices about whether to continue reading. Emotions reported and their intensity influenced further reading of the texts. Findings support a model linking topic interest, affect and persistence [Ainley, M., Hidi, S., & Berndorff, D. (2002). Interest, learning, and the psychological processes that mediate their relationship. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(3), 545–561] and demonstrate the role of interest in the motivation of text processing.