Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Emotions, including stress and anxiety, strongly influence cognition and learning experiences. This study investigates the impacts of stress on cognitive load during learning, considering baseline anxiety levels and fluctuating stress. With a focus on technology-based learning, a web-based HTML introduction module was used. Using a social stress test, 15 participants underwent a stressful situation during learning, while the control group of 15 were in a neutral condition. Results indicate significantly elevated stress levels in the experimental group throughout the experiment, with a corresponding decrease in learning performance. For high perceived difficulty, the stressed condition demonstrated a significant increase in response time compared to the control condition. In contrast, when experiencing low perceived difficulty, a significant difference in response time across conditions was not found. Findings emphasise the importance of managing stress in educational contexts to optimise learning outcomes in the evolving landscape of technology-based learning.