Choice and Difficulty as Antecedents of Affect During Learning

• In Event: Exploring the Antecedents of Students’ Academic Emotions

Abstract

This study explored the effects of choice and difficulty as antecedents of interest, valence, and arousal during learning of four research methods topics from instructional texts. The foundational theoretical framework is self-determination theory, which highlights the value of both choice and difficulty for enhancing feelings of autonomy and, consequently, positive affect (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Previous research has indicated that choice supports the need for autonomy and learners also tend to feel more autonomous and in control of their learning when engaging in tasks with a moderate level of difficulty (Patall, Cooper, & Robionson, 2008; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). Hence, we hypothesized that providing learners with choice and moderately difficult tasks would trigger interest and other positive activating emotions (Hidi, 2006).
Eighty-four undergraduate students participated in the experiment. This experiment had a 2 × 2 (choice x difficulty) within-subjects design. The two levels of choice were texts that were self-selected versus experimenter-assigned. The levels of text difficulty were experimentally manipulated easy and difficult versions of instructional texts.
Participants read texts on four research methods concepts (replication, experimenter bias, causality, and dependent variables) for approximately 25 minutes. Each text contained approximately 1500 words and was linked to one of the four experimental conditions (counterbalanced across participants). Self-reports of perceived interest was measured after reading each text, while valence and arousal were measured before and after reading each text.
A mixed-effects modeling approach was adopted for all analyses. As predicted, participants self-reported significantly higher levels of interest (p = .01) after reading the self-selected texts (M = 2.08) compared to the experimenter-assigned texts (M = 1.86). The difficulty effect was not significant for interest.
Delta arousal and valence scores were computed by subtracting post-reading arousal and valence values from pre-reading arousal and valence, respectively. Participants reported significantly (p = .01) smaller decreases in arousal when reading the difficult texts (M = -0.03) compared to the easy texts (M = -0.73). There was no effect of choice on delta arousal. In contrast, there were negligible changes in valence after reading the self-selected texts (M = 0.00), but valence significantly (p = .04) decreased for the experimenter-assigned texts (M = -0.63). The difficulty effect was not significant for valence. The choice × difficulty interaction was not significant for interest, valence, or arousal.
Finally, interest was positively correlated with both valence (r = .57) and arousal (r = .60), thereby confirming that interest is a positive activating emotion.
The results of this experiment confirmed our major hypothesis that choice and difficulty are important antecedents of affect. Specifically, the provision of choice increased interest and valence, while higher difficulty caused lower reductions in arousal. Although these results are consistent with self-determination theory, the lack of interactions between choice and difficulty suggests a closer examination of the data and perhaps reexamination of the theory. The next step is to investigate how individual differences in prior knowledge and ability moderate the effect of choice and difficulty on affect.

Authors

• Sidney K. D'Mello, University of Notre Dame

• Sara M. Fulmer, SUNY - College at Oneonta

• Caitlin Mills, University of Notre Dame