Do emotions affect spelling performance in dictation?

This research examines the influence of the emotional content of a text on the orthographic production of 187 5th graders. The exercise of dictation implies complex cognitive activities and for this reason is an interesting task to study the emotion-cognition interactions in the school context. In reference to empirical studies about emotion influence on problem solving activities, the hypothesis that the emotional content (happy, sad or neutral) of a text read to children will found a congruent emotional state with the valence of the text is tested. The results show that the spelling success varies according to the valence of the read text. This effect is not mediated by an emotional state produced by the text. The best scores are observed with the neutral text. The dictation drawn from the sad text is carried out more successfully than that drawn from the happy one. An interaction between the valence of the read text, the spelling level (evaluated using a pilot dictation) and orthographic dimensions also appears. The whole of the results is interpreted in terms of orientation on the emotional content and its distracter effect compared to the principal task of spelling.