Young children's knowledge about effects of affect on performance

Abstract

Three‐and four‐year‐olds were compared to kindergartners and first‐graders for their awareness that emotions could affect their performance on an eye‐hand coordination task. The older children gave significantly lower predictions of their performance under conditions of induced sad emotions than did the younger children. There was no significant difference between predictions under induced happy emotions. The results were interpreted as indicating a developmental trend such that children's predictions conform more to the mood congruity theory as they grow older.