Cognitive load, affect, and regulatory strategies: a more integrated model

Cognitive load theory (CLT) has become a powerful framework for conceptualizing learning from instruction. An emerging body of CLT literature has begun the examination of relationships between cognition and affective elements in recent years, broadening its scope. This exploratory study examines relationships between the cognitive load experienced in learning contexts, emotional states, motivational constructs, and regulatory strategies. Using a convergent parallel design, both quantitative and qualitative associations between affective constructs, including use of emotion regulation strategies, and differences in cognitive load and learning were explored within a descriptive longitudinal study. Findings suggest maladaptive affect may impose a measurable extraneous load component, and adaptive regulation may reduce it, offering preliminary empirical support for an affective extension of CLT. Further, study results reveal emotion regulation may not be an “add-on” to cognitive load management, but a fundamental mechanism through which participants navigated demanding learning tasks. Of the regulatory strategies examined, cognitive reappraisal emerged as a powerful strategy when load and emotional costs were highest. Findings point toward a more integrated framework for understanding learning that encompasses cognition, affect, motivation, and self-regulation as mutually constitutive processes, including the proposal of affective cognitive load (ACL) as a theoretically motivated subtype of extraneous cognitive load (ECL). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to combine CLT with affective dimensions of learning within a mixed methods, repeated measures framework.