A great deal of research in the field of education has placed the emphasis on the analysis of learning as strictly cognitive. Particularly in the area of mathematics as a science in which only intellectual effort is involved. It has been until relatively recently that the interest in a different area and in fact considered diametrically opposite: affection, arises in the investigation. This is perhaps explained by the lack of a theoretical framework and an adequate methodology to measure affections. At present, more and more researchers in mathematics have paid attention to affective issues, and both their theoretical frameworks and their tools for obtaining data are increasingly solid and varied. In this paper we intend to present an overview of these investigations, giving an account of several theories that support the relationship between the affective domain and the cognitive domain, specifically associated with the concurrence of emotions in the learning of mathematics. This research is of a descriptive character with mixed methodology, and aims to contribute in the field of the affective domain considering the emotions in relation to basic mathematical competences.