Emotional component of teaching and learning has often been neglected in the process of teacher planning and preparation, with or without conscious intent. It has been recommended that all three aspects of learning (cognitive, motivational, and emotional) be taken into consideration when tailoring instruction to meet the individual needs of the students (Ranđelović, 2017). Bearing in mind that the emotional component has least been empirically researched, this paper aims at emphasising the need for further study of various aspects of the emotional experiences of learning and corelating them with the personality traits of the students. 

 A growing body of empirical studies has shown that emotionally charged learning materials (either positive or negative) have a higher recall rate compared to the emotionally neutral content. The confirmation for such argument can be found in several experimental studies which used visual and verbal prompts (images, words, sentences) as stimuli (see Buchanan & Adolphs, 2002, and Hamann, 2001, for reviews). In their seminal study, Kensinger and Corkin (Kensinger & Corkin, 2003) found a significant rise in recalling the emotionally charged words compared to neutral ones. Specifically, they used words with negative subtext (related to violence and danger) and reported a marked increase in both quantative and qualitative recall of the words with clear emotional connotation.

A number of authors studied the reciprocity between personality traits and moods and recalling the words with various emotional charge (MacLeod, Andersen and Davies, 1994; Seidlitz and Diener, 1993; Canli et al., 2001; Rasmussen and Berntsen, 2010). Namely, a significant positive correlation between extraversion and the recall rate of emotional stimuli was reported (Canli et al., 2001), while neuroticism was linked to a better recall of negatively charged stimuli. Furthermore, openness to experience proved to be interlinked with emotional stimuli (Rasmussen and Berntsen, 2010).

Research methodology

The general aim of our study was to determine whether there is a significant difference in the recall of words with various emotional connotation (positive, negative, and neutral subtext). In addition, our specific aim was to map the connections between prominence of certain personality traits based on the Big Five model and the recall rate of emotionally charged words. We also looked at the recall rate in relation to gender and social status of the respondents. The respondents (N=165) comprised of 7th and 8th grade students of elementary schools in Kosovo and Metohija. The research apparatus consisted of the Semantic Differential, used for evaluation of connotative meaning of words, a recall test, and the Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality test. Analyse data:  descriptive statistic tools, as well as the Pearson correlation coefficient and the dependent t-test for repeated measures.

The list of words with emotional connotation of equal usage frequency (40 words in each category; positive, negative, and neutral) was compiled in cooperation with three lecturers from the Department of Serbian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Kosovska Mitrovica. The pilot study on the sample of 100 students looked into the connotative meaning of the chosen words using the Semantic Differential whose mean values on certain adjectives on the scale (passive-active, negative-positive, pleasant-unpleasant) helped narrow down the list to 30 words of superlative subtext (most positive, most negative, and most neutral). Subsequently, this narrowed list was given to the main sample of the respondents with the task of evaluating the words' connotative meaning. Immediately after that, the respondents were asked to complete the BFI test. Finally, a week later, the respondents were asked to look at the list of 90 words (including the selected 30 from the previous stage) and to recall as many of the words they evaluated previously.

The general aim of our study was to determine whether there is a significant difference in the recall of words with various emotional connotation (positive, negative, and neutral subtext). In addition, our specific aim was to map the connections between prominence of certain personality traits based on the Big Five model and the recall rate of emotionally charged words. We also looked at the recall rate in relation to gender and social status of the respondents. The respondents (N=165) comprised of 7th and 8th grade students of elementary schools in Kosovo and Metohija. The research apparatus consisted of the Semantic Differential, used for evaluation of connotative meaning of words, a recall test, and the Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality test. Analyse data: descriptive statistic tools, as well as the Pearson correlation coefficient and the dependent t-test for repeated measures. The list of words with emotional connotation of equal usage frequency (40 words in each category; positive, negative, and neutral) was compiled in cooperation with three lecturers from the Department of Serbian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Kosovska Mitrovica. The pilot study on the sample of 100 students looked into the connotative meaning of the chosen words using the Semantic Differential whose mean values on certain adjectives on the scale (passive-active, negative-positive, pleasant-unpleasant) helped narrow down the list to 30 words of superlative subtext (most positive, most negative, and most neutral). Subsequently, this narrowed list was given to the main sample of the respondents with the task of evaluating the words' connotative meaning. Immediately after that, the respondents were asked to complete the BFI test. Finally, a week later, the respondents were asked to look at the list of 90 words (including the selected 30 from the previous stage) and to recall as many of the words they evaluated previously.

The results indicate that the words with negative subtext have the highest recall rate (АС=7.46, СД=1, 87), following ‘neutral’ words (АС=7.11, СД=2, 32), while words with positive connotation have the lowest recall rate (АС=6.81, СД=2, 32). It was found that there is a significant difference between the recall rate of ‘negative’ and ‘neutral’ words (т=2.314, дф=164, p<0, 05), and the recall rate of ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ words (т=4.391, дф=164, p<0, 01), the difference between the recall rate of “positive’ and ‘neutral’ words was non-significant. The second part of the study, the correlation between the prominence of specific traits of the BF model and the recall of words, indicates that extraversion is significantly positively correlated to high recall rate of all three groups of words (positive (р=.212, п<0.01), neutral (р=.208, п<0.01), negative (р=.216, п<0.01)); cooperativeness is significantly positively correlated to high recall rate of the ‘neutral’ words (р=.216, п<0.01), while openness to experience is significantly positively correlated to high recall rate of ‘negative’ (р=.199, п<0.01) and ‘positive’ (р=.162, п<0.05) words. Finally, the investigation into demographical factors revealed that female students exhibit higher recall rate of all three groups of words. On the other hand, social status played no part in the recall rate of the emotionally charged words. Overall, the obtained results are partially consistent with the previous studies.

Buchanan, T., & Adolphs, R. (2002). The role of the human amygdala in emotional modulation of long-term declarative memory. Ina Canli, T., Zhao, Z., Desmond, J., Kang, E., Gross, J. & Gabrieli, J. (2001). An fMRI study of personality influences on brain reactivity to emotional stimuli. Behavioral Neuroscience, 115 (1), 33-42. Hamann, S. (2001). Cognitive and neural mechanisms of emotional memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 394-400. Hultsch, D.F., Hertzog, C., Small, B. J., & Dixon, R.A. (1999). Use it or lose it: Engaged lifestyle as a buffer of cognitive decline in aging? Psychology and Aging, 14, 245-263. Kensinger, E.A, Corkin, S. (2003). Memory enhancement for emotional words: Are emotional words more vividly remembered than neutral words? Memory & Cognition, 31 (8), p. 1169–1180. MacLeod, A. K., Andersen, A. & Davies, A. (1994). Self-ratings of positive and negative affect and retrieval of positive and negative affect memories. Cognition and Emotion, 8, 483-488. Moore, S. & Oaksford, M. (Eds.), Emotional cognition: From brain to behavior (pp. 9-34). London: Benjamins. Ranđelović, D. (2017). Efikasnost i psihološke osnove nstave putem rešavanja problema uviđanjem. Kosovska Mitrovica: Filozofski fakultet. Rasmussen, A. S. & Berntsen, D. (2010). Personality traits and autobiographical memory: Openness is positively related to the experience and usage of recollections, Memory, 18, 774-786. Seidlitz, L. & Diener, E. (1993). Memory for positive versus negative life events: Theories for the differences between happy and unhappy persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 654-664.