Corrigendum: Flattening the COVID-19 curve: Emotions mediate the effects of a persuasive message on preventive action.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047241.].

Reading with induced worry: The role of physiological self-regulation and working memory updating in text comprehension.

BACKGROUND: An interplay of emotional and cognitive aspects underlies academic performance. We focused on the contribution of such interplay to text comprehension. AIMS: We investigated the effect of worry on comprehension and the role of two potential moderators of this effect: physiological self-regulation as resting heart rate variability (HRV) and working memory updating. SAMPLE: Eighty-two seventh graders were involved in a quasi-experimental design. METHODS: Students read an informational text in one of two reading conditions: to read for themselves to know more (n = 46; low-worry condition) or to gain the highest score in a ranking (n = 36; high-worry condition). Students' resting HRV was recorded while watching a video of a natural scenario. The executive function of working memory updating was also assessed. After reading, students completed a comprehension task. RESULTS: Findings revealed the moderating role of HRV in the relationship between induced worry and text comprehension. In the high-worry condition, students with higher resting HRV performed better than students who read under the same instructions but had lower HRV. In contrast, in the low-worry condition, students with higher resting HRV showed a lower performance as compared to students with lower HRV. Finally, working memory updating was positively related to text comprehension. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the cognitive component of anxiety, that is, worry, plays a role in performing a fundamental learning activity like text comprehension. The importance of physiological self-regulation emerges clearly. In a condition of high worry, higher ability to regulate emotions and thoughts acts as a protective factor.

Flattening the COVID-19 curve: Emotions mediate the effects of a persuasive message on preventive action.

Introduction: Across four countries (Canada, USA, UK, and Italy), we explored the effects of persuasive messages on intended and actual preventive actions related to COVID-19, and the role of emotions as a potential mechanism for explaining these effects. Methods: One thousand seventy-eight participants first reported their level of concern and emotions about COVID-19 and then received a positive persuasive text, negative persuasive text, or no text. After reading, participants reported their emotions about the pandemic and their willingness to take preventive action. One week following, the same participants reported the frequency with which they engaged in preventive action and behaviors that increased the risk of contracting COVID-19. Results: Results revealed that the positive persuasive text significantly increased individuals' willingness to and actual engagement in preventive action and reduced risky behaviors 1 week following the intervention compared to the control condition. Moreover, significant differences were found between the positive persuasive text condition and negative persuasive text condition whereby individuals who read the positive text were more willing and actually engaged in more preventive action compared to those who read the negative text. No differences were found, however, at the 1-week follow-up for social distancing and isolation behaviors. Results also revealed that specific discrete emotions mediated relations between the effects of the texts and preventive action (both willing and actual). Discussion: This research highlights the power of educational interventions to prompt behavioral change and has implications for pandemic-related interventions, government policy on health promotion messages, and future research.

Anxiety and Social Support as Predictors of Student Academic Motivation During the COVID-19.

In this study we examined whether parents' perceptions of students' anxiety as well as perceived support from both teachers and classmates were predictive of changes in students' academic motivation during the first wave of COVID-19. To this end, we used a retrospective pretest-posttest design together with a latent change score model to analyze our data. From April to May of 2020, 394 Portuguese parents of students in grades 1-9 participated in this study. Our results showed that students' anxiety and teachers' social support, as perceived by parents, were highly significant predictors of academic motivation changes. Specifically, we found a negative effect of anxiety and a positive effect of teachers' social support on students' academic motivation. Our results did not show, however, a significant predictive role of classmates' social support. This study provides an important contribution to further understand the intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that are associated with the decline of students' academic motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pivotal role of teachers in sustaining students' academic motivation and other relevant educational implications for the ongoing pandemic are discussed.

Physiological responses to a school task: The role of student-teacher relationships and students' emotional appraisal.

BACKGROUND: To be successful, students must learn to deal with socially and cognitively demanding tasks. Much remains unknown about the effects of previous classroom experiences and of students' emotional appraisal of a task on their physiological adaptive responses to it. AIMS: To investigate how children's physiological response to a social and cognitive task would be directly and interactively influenced by the perceived student-teacher relationship and by children's emotional appraisal of what reaction they expect to have while completing the task. METHODS: One hundred and sixteen second and third graders took part in the study. Children completed a cognitive and social stress task. Before the task, they were interviewed on their emotional appraisal of the task and on student-teacher relationships. Children's cardiac activity was registered at rest and during the task to measure physiological activation (heart rate) and self-regulation (heart rate variability). RESULTS: Heart rate variability during the task was positively correlated with the appraised emotional valence of the task and of being observed while doing it. Regression analyses showed that children's physiological self-regulation during the task was affected by the interaction between student-teacher relationships and appraised emotional valence of being observed. Only among children who had experienced negative student-teacher relationships, an active physiological self-regulation was observed in response to the task when they expected it to be positive compared to when they perceived it as negative. CONCLUSIONS: Children's emotional appraisal of tasks and the quality of student-teacher relationships are important to promote a functional physiological response of self-regulation that underlies academic functioning and well-being at school.

Parents' Perceptions of Student Academic Motivation During the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Cross-Country Comparison.

The COVID-19 outbreak has ravaged all societal domains, including education. Home confinement, school closures, and distance learning impacted students, teachers, and parents' lives worldwide. In this study, we aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19-related restrictions on Italian and Portuguese students' academic motivation as well as investigate the possible buffering role of extracurricular activities. Following a retrospective pretest-posttest design, 567 parents (n Italy = 173, n Portugal = 394) reported on their children's academic motivation and participation in extracurricular activities (grades 1 to 9). We used a multi-group latent change score model to compare Italian and Portuguese students': (1) pre-COVID mean motivation scores; (2) rate of change in motivation; (3) individual variation in the rate of change in motivation; and (4) dependence of the rate of change on initial motivation scores. Estimates of latent change score models showed a decrease in students' motivation both in Italy and in Portugal, although more pronounced in Italian students. Results also indicated that the decrease in students' participation in extracurricular activities was associated with changes in academic motivation (i.e., students with a lower decrease in participation in extracurricular activities had also a lower decrease in motivation). Furthermore, students' age was significantly associated with changes in motivation (i.e., older students had lower decrease). No significant associations were found for students' gender nor for parents' education. This study provides an important contribution to the study of students' academic motivation during home confinement, school closures, and distance learning as restrictive measures adopted to contain a worldwide health emergency. We contend that teachers need to adopt motivation-enhancing practices as means to prevent the decline in academic motivation during exceptional situations.

The interplay of reading-related emotions and updating in reading comprehension performance.

BACKGROUND: Reading comprehension can be considered the main learning activity. All learning experiences are infused with emotions; however, to date, few studies have focused on the role of emotional aspects in reading comprehension performance. The impact of emotions on academic achievement is thought to be mediated or moderated by cognitive aspects. Among them, working memory updating is an executive function that plays a crucial role in reading comprehension. AIMS: This study aimed to investigate the relationships between reading-related emotions and reading comprehension performance. We also consider the role that updating may play in these relationships. SAMPLE: Two hundred and eight 8th graders were involved in four sessions. METHOD: Students completed measures of achievement emotions specifically related to reading comprehension activity, updating, and reading comprehension performance. Gender and general cognitive ability were also considered as control variables. Mixed-effects models were used for statistical analyses. According to the Akaike information criterion (AIC; Akaike, 1974), we selected the most plausible model among a set of candidate models fitted to the same data. RESULTS: Results showed that activating-negative emotions (i.e., anxiety, anger, and shame), deactivating-negative emotions (i.e., boredom and hopelessness), and updating are related with reading comprehension performance. Moreover, the interaction between activating-negative emotions and updating also emerged. When activating-negative emotions interact with low and moderate updating, students' reading comprehension performance gets worse. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates the moderating role of a main cognitive ability in the link between reading-related emotions and reading comprehension performance. Strategies can be taught to improve students' ability to self-regulate negative emotions and to update information in working memory.