“Emotions can make us smarter. … our emotional state represents a crucial internal situation that influences how intelligently we think and act.  When we’re in a positive mood, for example, we tend to think more expansively and creatively. When we feel anxious—for instance, when we’re about to take a dreaded math test—that anxiety uses up some of the working memory capacity we need to solve problems, leaving us, literally, with less intelligence to apply to the exam.”
–excerpted from Annie Murphy, Eight Ways of Looking at Intelligence http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bc04df008d4705e4e77c2eb35&id=469f021df1&e=a4604447b9

I have been on a campaign of sorts for many years to affirm that our emotional world matters in response to the saturation of logical positivism in how the western world defines “knowing”. Simply put this article confirms that the emotional world is a significant reality and while not deterministic, is highly influential and deserves our attention. This excerpt from Annie Murphy emphasizes that performing intelligently is magnificently linked to our emotional state.  Consequently, the environments and situations we are placed in that lead to certain emotional arousal can have degradative or enhancing effects on how we think and behave.

It follows then that we should immerse ourselves in environments ((internal and external) that promote positive emotional arousal when learning and when we must demonstrate what has been learned.