Association between learning performance and motivational/cognitive variables

Determine whether students’ learning performance on proportional relationships correlates with positive-activating emotions, situational interest, intrinsic cognitive load, extrinsic cognitive load, and self-efficacy measured after the learning phase.

Background

The authors measured several variables—emotions, situational interest, cognitive load, and self-efficacy—and observed significant differences favoring the AI-generated explanations group on these measures.

However, the relationship between these variables and actual performance in the paper’s tasks could not be established, leaving open whether such motivational and cognitive factors translate into improved learning outcomes.