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Impact of emotions on learning and memory-related brain processes across development: an application to climate-related educational issues

Project description

The impact of emotions on learning and memory

Many countries and organisations have promoted sustainability education programmes to enhance the impact of green initiatives and projects. However, despite the expansion of climate awareness policies, the emphasis on negative content has led to unsatisfactory outcomes such as poor knowledge retention and persistent misinformation. With the support of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Emotiv4climate will investigate the role of positive versus negative emotions on the integration of new systemic (complex) information into existing knowledge, using advanced neurophysiological techniques. Additionally, the project will adopt a developmental approach by comparing these associative memory performance between young adults and school-aged children, who have different maturation levels in emotional regulation and sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes.

Objective

Providing large-scale sustainability education programs, in particular regarding climate issues, is critical to quickly implement the profound socio-ecological transformations expected by the mid-21st century. Although climate awareness is growing, current education policies -which mainly warn the risks of climate change, therefore focusing on negative contents- struggle to reach their objectives, as misinformation and poor knowledge assimilation persist. Yet, recent advances in neurosciences suggest that while negative emotion strengthen the memory of the emotional element, it disrupts associative memory, which is essential for the development of complex multivariate representations. Leveraging cutting-edge neurophysiological techniques (magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography), Emotiv4climate hypothesizes that positive emotions will enhance associative memory due to the selective integration of the newly learned information within hippocampus-dependent networks that promote their binding. And that positive memories will benefit more from sleep-dependent consolidation processes than negative ones, favouring their integration within pre-existing knowledge. Using ecology-themed material and questionnaires, Emotiv4climate will elucidate the differential impact of emotions (positive vs negative) on the behavioural and functional brain connectivity processes associated with learning and memory processes with an applied dimension to climate-related educational issues. Our understanding will benefit from a developmental approach comparing young adults and school-aged children with different maturational levels in terms of sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes. Emotiv4climate will hence not only uncover the cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms through which emotions impact learning and memory consolidation throughout development but also help designing optimized communication and education strategies likely to catalyse sustainable behaviour.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES
Net EU contribution
€ 200 400,00
Address
AVENUE FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT 50
1050 BRUXELLES
Belgium
Region
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)