Negative emotions, according to the researchers, have a harmful affect on schooling because negativity distracts students from the assignment and weakens motivation. The researchers also note that environments and evaluations by others influence emotions and those emotions then influence the student’s learning and achievement. 
	Although emotions in a learning environment affect students positively or negatively, Schultheiss, Riebel, and Jones note that when experiencing negativity, one hemisphere of the brain will become more engaged than the other. In this particular study, the researchers analyzed “activity inhibition” and possible associations with the functions of the left- and right-hemispheres of the brain. AI is described as a measure of how often an individual uses the word “not” in written or spoken language. The researchers conducted four experiments to study the associations between AI and the hemispheres of the brain, using a dot-probe task (DPT), a Picture Story Exercise (PSE), and a mood measure to monitor stress levels. A DPT is when a dot is presented on a computer screen in either the left- or right vision field of the participant, who then must press a key to signify “which side of the screen the dot appeared on.” A PSE is a tool to measure AI in which participants must imagine a story to coincide with pictures given to them. The results show that from experiments 1 and 2, the participants who had high AI “levels” noticed stimuli presented to the left vision field (right hemisphere) quicker than stimuli presented to the right vision field (left hemisphere) in the dot-probe task. The results show that from experiments 2, 3, and 4, if participants felt “threatened, frustrated,” or experienced a “negative mood,” the right hemisphere of the brain was more engaged than the left hemisphere and the participants also had higher “levels” of AI.
	As shown from previous studies, cerebral lateralization affects students and how they learn. Studies conducted by Szirony et al. and Pekrun et al. focused on self-esteem and emotional states in relation to students and their academic success. Schultheiss et al. show that negative emotional states engage the right hemisphere of the brain more than the left hemisphere of the brain, thus, demonstrating a relationship between negative emotional states and cerebral lateralization. Hemispheric preference also affects students and how they learn. Sonnier and Sonnier note that students think and learn either visually or analytically because of different hemispheric preferences. The researchers propose that in order to provide education to both right- and left hemisphere preferred individuals, the teacher must incorporate “affective education” through holistic means. Sonnier and Sonnier describe affective education as a nurturing learning environment, in which educators teach analytical thought processing to the visual learners and teach visual thought processing to the analytical learners. 
	As a whole, schools are structured more toward educating individuals who are predominantly left-hemisphere preferred; the modern school environment focuses on schedules and facts, also favoring verbal instruction over written instruction. 