What’s the Cost? Addressing Constructs of Emotion within Cognition

• In Event: Using the Concept of Perceived Cost to Bridge Cognitive and Motivational Theories of Student Learning

Abstract

Purpose and Framework: Cognitive load theory (CLT) explains learning from instruction as it interacts with prior knowledge in working memory. Historically, CLT theory has focused exclusively on identifying the cognitive processes, mechanisms, and strategies that enhance learning outcomes, relying on an underlying assumption that motivation precedes cognition and that emotions may impede learning by interfering with working memory (Chassy et al., 2023; Sweller et al., 2019). However, recent work has expanded CLT to incorporate interactions between cognitive load, motivation, and emotion (Feldon et al., 2018, 2019).
Emotion often acts as an integral aspect of motivation and learning (Blanchette & Richards, 2010; Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2012; Plass & Kalyuga, 2019), and research in motivational cost has identified both emotional and cognitive facets (Flake et al., 2015). Indeed, Feldon and colleagues have identified consistent predictive relationships between extraneous load (i.e., invested mental effort unproductive for learning) and negative motivational impacts. Results from these studies led to the conceptualization of cognitive load as a motivational cost, with cost encompassing the effort, time, and/or negative appraisals associated with or required to engage in a task.

Sources and Findings: Through this integrative review, findings from Authors (2023, 2024) and research on cost values will be integrated with the goal of illustrating how motivational and emotional processes interact within the framework of motivational cost. Authors (2023) revealed a strong negative association between extraneous cognitive load and self-efficacy during within-time measurements and a positive relationship between intrinsic load and self-efficacy across time in two studies. The results point to increases in self-efficacy being a consequence of the productive cognitive load imposed by instruction, which suggests differential motivational impacts of task-related and task-unrelated motivational costs associated with the investment of effort. Overall, the studies provide an enhanced understanding of cognition-motivation interactions, highlighting the motivational costs associated with invested mental effort.
Further, Authors (2024) found extraneous cognitive load (ECL) to function as a form of motivational cost among Ph.D. students within the biological sciences, such that it had negative consequences for mental and emotional well-being, particularly when cost was perceived or experienced as overwhelm (e.g., Hawthorne et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2022). In contrast, the productive effort associated with processing complex subject matter was not associated with motivational cost or negative well-being, suggesting that the investment of effort is not always perceived to be a cost—only the investment of unproductive effort is. When costs outstrip benefits and start to be perceived negatively (e.g., when students experience overwhelm and ECL due to a lack of guidance, instruction, and resources from key supports), this becomes demotivating (Barron & Hulleman, 2015; Authors, 2024).

Significance: These studies provide a critical foundation for conceptualizing specific types of cognitive load as motivational cost and point to the need to broaden the theoretical scope of CLT in order to directly address the emotional and motivational aspects of learning. The possibility of using emotion regulation strategies to mitigate cognitive load will be discussed.

Authors

• Rebecca B. Brockbank, Utah State University

• David F. Feldon, Utah State University