Affect Regulation During Learning: The Enhancing Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal

Abstract

Affective experiences routinely occur during learning and need to be successfully regulated. In two experiments, we used an intervention that combined elements of utility value and cognitive reappraisal to gauge its effects on engagement and performance. We predicted that participants using the reappraisal strategy would experience more engagement and higher learning outcomes than controls. Ethnically diverse adult learners ranging from 18 to 58 years of age (Experiment 1, N = 93; Experiment 2: N = 138) used affect regulation strategies or no strategy (control) in an online learning environment. Engagement and learning outcomes were measured throughout the experiment. Participants who used reappraisal generally reported more engagement and achieved higher learning outcomes than controls. A mediation analysis revealed evidence of a partial mediation effect of affective engagement between reappraisal and learning outcomes in Study 2. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the role of affect regulation during learning.

Emotion Regulation Processes Can Benefit Self-Regulated Learning in Classical Musicians

“…Current results are in line with Ben-Eliyahu and Linnenbrink-Garcia’s (2013) findings which demonstrated that reappraisal, when compared to suppression and rumination, supports SRL. Furthermore, reappraisal has been demonstrated to be useful as an intervention to improve comprehension in learning and related to higher learning achievements ( Strain and D’Mello, 2015 ). As SRL has been found to enhance achievements ( Miksza, 2015 ), the findings of the present study, together with earlier research, suggest that this relationship between reappraisal and achievement found by Strain and D’Mello (2015) can be explained by a higher use of SRL.…”

“…Cognitive reappraisal has been found to be one of the most effective ways of regulating negative emotions (Gross and Thompson, 2007). Strain and D'Mello (2015) conducted an intervention study and found that adult learners achieved better scores than a control group who received no intervention when using cognitive reappraisal. Reappraising learners not only experienced more positive emotions but, more importantly, experienced activating positive emotions (i.e., alertness and engagement) which correlate positively with learning outcomes.…”

Benefits of Affective Pedagogical Agents in Multimedia Instruction

“…Similarly, research has shown that the cognitive consequences of different emotion regulation strategies may be different. For example, Strain and D'Mello (2015) found that students who used cognitive reappraisal strategy reported more affective engagement and achieved better learning outcomes than those who did not use any strategy. Dillon et al (2007) reported that cognitive reappraisal strategy (cognitive up-regulation and cognitive down-regulation) rather than expressive suppression strategy promoted the memory of emotional materials.…”

When Ignoring Negative Feedback Is Functional: Presenting a Model of Motivated Feedback Disengagement

“…Because reappraisal comprises cognitions centered on the feedback, it is an engagement strategy and thus also serves improvement goals (Naragon-Gainey, McMahon, & Chacko, 2017). Indeed, participants instructed to use reappraisal during a learning task reported higher levels of positive affect and performed better, compared with participants who did not receive reappraisal instructions (Strain & D’Mello, 2015).…”