NEW in Toronto: What Kids Know About Emotions and Performance
About this Event
On October 28, we present : "What Kids Know About Emotions and Performance" by Prof. Samuel Ronfard.
We’re often told that happy kids learn better and that anger gets in the way. But emotions don’t work quite so neatly.
Joy can make it harder to concentrate when it becomes too intense. Anger, surprisingly, can sometimes help us persist and perform. So when do we learn that emotions can have both benefits and costs?
In this lecture, Dr. Samuel Ronfard explores how children between five and ten understand the relationship between emotions and performance. Across nine experiments, his research team asked children what they think different emotions do to the way we think, focus, and perform.
What emerges is a fascinating shift across childhood. Younger children tend to see emotions in simpler terms—good feelings help, bad feelings hurt. By around age ten, children begin to recognize something more nuanced: an emotion can give you energy, motivation, or focus while also making certain kinds of thinking more difficult.
The result is a window into how we learn one of the most complicated lessons about our own minds: sometimes the same emotion that helps us do something can also get in our way.
💡 About the wonderful Prof. Samuel Ronfard
Dr. Samuel Ronfard is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Director of the Childhood Learning and Development (ChiLD) Lab. His research explores how children’s thinking changes as they grow - including how they learn to ask questions, balance trust with skepticism, resolve disagreements, and understand the relationship between their minds and emotions.
Before becoming a researcher, Dr. Ronfard was a teacher in New York City, where he first developed an appreciation for how sophisticated children’s thinking can be.
📅 Date: October 28, 2026
🕡 Time: 6:30 – 8:30 PM
📍 Location: Black Lab Brewing
🎤 Speaker: Prof. Samuel Ronfard
🎟 Seats are limited!
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 38.82
