Cognitive Load and Epistemic Emotions Interact to Determine Students’ Performance in a Technology-Rich Environment

Researchers have examined the separate roles of cognitive load and epistemic emotions in influencing students' performance; however, more evidence is needed to explore the interaction of these two constructs and their joint effects on performance.In this study, a total of 107 students solved a clinical problem within a technology-rich environment, during which they reported their perceptions of cognitive load (i.e., intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load), surprise, confusion, curiosity, and enjoyment.Task performance was indicated by diagnostic accuracy and efficiency.Results of path analyses revealed that intrinsic and extraneous load positively predicted surprise and confusion, whereas germane load negatively predicted curiosity and enjoyment.Moreover, this study found four significant mediation effects: intrinsic loadsurpriseaccuracy (negative); extraneous loadconfusionefficiency (negative); germane loadenjoymentaccuracy (positive); and germane loadcuriosityefficiency (positive).Overall, these findings suggested that the predictive effects of cognitive load could be mediated by different epistemic emotions.