The effects of cognitive load conditions upon performance, anxiety, and self-efficacy in computer-based learning environments.

Abstract

The present study examined whether an extraneous cognitive load condition adversely affected participants' performance, self-efficacy, and anxiety. The participants were sixty-six pre-service teacher education students across two pre-service undergraduate teacher education courses who volunteered to take part in this study. The correlation coefficient was used for the content because Nolen (1995) found that self-efficacy for statistics was related to cognitive engagement. Participants were randomly assigned to either an extraneous cognitive load or non-extraneous cognitive load condition.

This study yielded a mixture of significant and non-significant findings regarding the effect of extraneous cognitive load upon motivation and performance. The results suggest two things. First, the correlation instruction improved participants' self-efficacy. Second, that there were confounds such as processing time and content domain that may have affected the results. This suggests that extraneous cognitive load conditions can still adversely impact motivation and performance, but further research is needed to examine these issues.