Linkage between Cognitive Load Theory and Academic Emotions: Effects of Emotion Induction on Anxiety, Cognitive Load and Learning in Nursing Students

According to literature, nursing students face high-stress experience and high cognitive load due to heavy academic content and stressful clinical environment. So, the present study aimed to study the effect of emotion induction on anxiety, emotion regulation, cognitive load and learning performance based on studies and theories of cognitive load and academic emotions in nursing students. In a Pre-test - Post-test experimental design with a control group of 30 boys’ and girls’ students by random assignment were divided into experiment and control groups after gaining inclusion and exclusion criteria. The participants of experiment group responded to the questionnaire before intervention with state anxiety questionnaire, emotion regulation, and learning performance test. After that, they took part in a 2 - hour training class with an unrelated topic of emotion regulation (initial concepts of choice theory) and again responded to the emotion regulation questionnaire. The film then found the thrill of emotion, so that after 10 minutes of the film they were asked to answer the anxiety questionnaire again and then watch the emotion Induction film. Finally, they watched the educational film about the kidney & urinary tract system, followed by the cognitive load questionnaire and the learning performance test. The control group received the same intervention process but did not just observe the emotion Induction film. The results of mixed analysis of variance showed that the experimental group participants had a significantly higher anxiety and total cognitive load, extraneous cognitive load, intrinsic cognitive load, and lower learning performance scores; but, the mean scores of germane load and emotion regulation between two groups did not show significant differences. Seemingly, in the learning process, negative emotion plays a crucial role in the way an extraneous and intrinsic cognitive load factor allocate the capacity of the memory to itself and prevents deep learning. Appropriate psychological interventions such as emotional regulation training to reduce negative emotion and increase desired cognitive load are recommended.