Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Education Research International

Volume 2012, Article ID 579590, 11 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/579590

Research Article
Affect and Cognitive Interference: An Examination of
Their Effect on Self-Regulated Learning

Georgia Papantoniou,1 Despina Moraitou,2 Maria Kaldrimidou,1

Katerina Plakitsi,1 Dimitra Filippidou,1 and Effie Katsadima1
1 Department of Early Childhood Education, School of Education, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
2 School of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece

Correspondence should be addressed to Georgia Papantoniou, gpapanto@uoi.gr

Received 3 August 2012; Revised 6 November 2012; Accepted 11 November 2012

Academic Editor: Bracha Kramarski

Copyright © 2012 Georgia Papantoniou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

The present study examined the relationships among affect, self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy use, and course attainment in
the didactics of mathematics (teaching mathematics) subject matter domain. The sample consisted of 180 undergraduate students
attending a didactics of mathematics course (mean age = 21.1 years) at the School of Early Childhood Education. The participants
were asked to respond to the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the Cognitive Interference Questionnaire
(CIQ). They also completed the Learning Strategies Scales of the MSLQ. Examination grades were used as the measure of course
attainment. Pearson correlations and path analysis revealed that negative affect was positively related to cognitive interference,
and positive affect influenced positively the use of almost all of the SRL strategies. Elaboration was the only SRL strategy found
to predict the didactics of mathematics course attainment. Finally, cognitive interference was found to negatively predict course
attainment.

1. Introduction at a macro-level are represented by relatively stable or trait-

like person characteristics (e.g., metacognitive knowledge,
Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a notion that emphasizes positive and negative affect, ability beliefs, etc.) [2] that
the active role of the learner in setting one’s goals to function across tasks or situations. In other words, SRL is
learning and ensuring that the goals set is attained [1–4]. Self conceived as domain-specific but at a generalized level (e.g.,
regulated learning in academic settings is assumed to consist self-efficacy in mathematics, emotions raised in a specific
of skills that are learned, rather than being unchangeable course, etc.) rather than at the task-specific or micro-level.
or genetically rooted [2]. As a result, various aspects of The macrolevel, or “Person” level according to Efklides [1],
SRL have often been conceived as being situational and comprises cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective,
context dependent, while less attention has been devoted and volitional person characteristics. In extant research in
to the connection between SRL and individual trait-like SRL there has been a lot of emphasis on motivational person
characteristics [5, 6]. characteristics but less so on affective. The “metacognitive
It is generally accepted in SRL research that self-regula- and affective model of self-regulated Learning” (the MASRL
tion comprises different systems and processes that monitor model) [1] posits that there are interrelations between person
and control behavior, such as cognition, metacognition, characteristics and between them and micro-level processes
motivation, affect, and volition [1, 7, 8]. According to as well. Specifically, affect and motivation are assumed to
Efklides [1] and Winne [3] the interactions between different interact with metacognition, both metacognitive knowledge
components of SRL can be described either at a macrolevel (MK) and metacognitive strategies (MSs).
or at a microlevel. The level of functioning of SRL processes Taking into account that there is no exhaustive list of
is important because metacognition, motivation, and affect affective person characteristics in the MASRL and that,
2 Education Research International

despite the remarkable progress in the concept of self- as an omnibus variable comprising emotions such as anxiety,
regulated learning, there are still several unanswered ques- frustration, and sadness [2, 17].
tions about the role of affect (general moods and specific
emotions), which—with the exception of test anxiety [9]— 1.1.1. Affect, Learning Strategies, and Academic Achievement.
is not yet fully comprehensible [10, 11], this study concep- In spite of the limited research, there are some findings
tualized affect in terms of positive affect, negative affect, and about the ways affect is involved in self-regulation. First of
cognitive interference (as one of the cognitive components of all, affective factors suit the individual’s ability to orientate
test anxiety). Focusing on affect is important because there is themselves towards the goals’ accomplishment process [11].
a need to clarify its role in SRL. In other words affect plays a guiding and regulatory role in
The interest in this study was also in SRL in terms our cognitive, as well as in our motivational system [10]. In
of the proposed model by Pintrich [12] of self-regulated addition, affect may increase or decrease working memory
learning comprising three general categories of strategies: load by using cognitive resources that could be devoted
cognitive learning strategies, metacognitive control or self- to the academic task. Emotion has also been used less in
regulatory strategies, and resource management strategies mathematics education research, and, despite the different
like managing and controlling one’s own time, effort, study approaches in mathematics education, there is some measure
environment, and so forth. The importance of academic self- of agreement: emotions affect cognitive processing in several
regulation is well established in college students, since it ways. They bias attention and memory. They activate action
has been shown that self-regulated learners’ attributes are tendencies and are seen to be functional, with a key role in
positively related to their academic achievement and their human coping and adaptation [20].
quality of learning [13–15]. There are two research trends which support that
students’ emotions influence academic achievement [10].
In the following positive affect, negative affect, and
Particularly, the experimental mood research has shown
cognitive interference are considered in more detail and
that affective states influence cognitive and motivational
findings concerning their relations with SRL strategies
processes relevant to cognitive achievement. Specifically, it
and performance in academic contexts are reviewed. An
has been found that moods and emotions make the mood-
empirical study is then reported that tested the interrelations
congruent memory processes easier [21] that is, positive
between trait positive affect, trait negative affect, state test
affect can increase motivation to approach tasks, while
anxiety (state cognitive interference), self-reported strategy
negative affect can increase the mood-congruent avoidance
use, and course attainment in the didactics of mathematics
motivation.
(mathematics teaching) in a School of Early Childhood Furthermore, emotions can affect some of the self-
Education student sample. regulation constituents, such as the selection of a strat-
egy [11]. In particular, in the frame of the experimental
1.1. Positive and Negative Affect. Different emotions and mood research, there are findings supporting that negative
moods often compose the more general constructs of positive affect may lead to more analytical, detailed, careful, and
affect (PA) versus negative affect (NA) as in recent research inflexible ways of processing information, whereas positive
these two broad and largely uncorrelated factors have affect promotes the creative, flexible, and holistic way of
emerged reliably as the dominant dimensions of emotional thinking which has more beneficial effects for more heuristic
experience [16]. They also emerge consistently across diverse processing [10, 22, 23].
descriptor sets, time frames, response formats, languages, However, a significant restriction of the above research is
and cultures [17]. As regards the question whether it is the fact that most of it has focused on attitudes and social
appropriate to regard the constructs of PA and NA as judgments and not on the academic content of learning.
relatively independent, Watson et al. [16] have reported low Surely, there is a second research trend which attempts to
to moderate correlations between the Positive Affect and the analyze students’ emotions in academic situations. Yet, most
Negative Affect Scales of the 20-item Positive and Negative of the research of this trend has concentrated on test anxiety
Affect Schedule (PANAS), ranging from −.12 to −.23, with [9] and has shown that anxiety hinders achievement in
other studies reporting similar results [18]. Moreover, using complex or difficult tasks which call for available cognitive
CFA, two nearly orthogonal dimensions of positive affect resources. This is due to the fact that affective factors—and
and negative affect were reported for a 10-item short form consequently test anxiety—can increase or decrease, accord-
of the PANAS (r = −.10) as well as for the 20-item form ingly, the load of the working memory when they consume
of the PANAS (r = −.30) [18]. Although, to date, only few available cognitive resources, which could be used in the
studies involving the 20-item PANAS in nonclinical samples solution of academic tasks. According to a large number of
have employed CFA, the results from the CFA modeling are data, when test anxiety is high, it actually influences learning
consistent with the results of the of EFA and have shown and achievement negatively, along different age groups and
that the positive affect and the negative affect are distinct and academic fields [24] and the existence of this influence is also
largely independent dimensions [19]. reinforced in the mathematics domain [25–30].
In most prior research on achievement goals and emo- Students studying science are also not exempt from the
tions, these more general constructs have been used, with negative effects that test anxiety can have on achievement.
PA being measured as an omnibus variable comprising Garcia [31] and Obrentz [32] reported that by the end of a
emotions such as enjoyment, pride, and satisfaction, and NA semester test anxiety negatively predicted final course grades
Education Research International 3

in chemistry. In a study with undergraduates that included have no functional value in solving the cognitive task at
biology students, Lin et al. [33] found that those who earned hand. When high-test-anxious subjects are confronted with
the highest final course grades had low test anxiety. Finally, difficult or challenging tasks, they are prone to experiencing
in a large study with 4.000 undergraduate including nearly interfering cognitive responses, dividing attention between
22% science majors, Chapell and his colleagues [34] found the self and the task. Therefore, researchers who study
a significant negative relationship between test anxiety and cognitive interference face the challenge of discriminating
college GPA. between on- and off-task thoughts—thoughts which reflect
The negative relation between anxiety and academic task involvement and are directed towards task completion
achievement has been also verified in Pekrun and his and thoughts which are not [40]. In addition to being
colleagues’ research [35, 36], who looked into the relation- distracted by task-irrelevant thoughts, test anxious students
ships of specific test emotions with academic achievement. may also be distracted by task-generated thoughts and other
Research about the relation of emotions, apart from anxiety, irrelevant task-related parameters (e.g., time left to complete
with achievement is limited. Although the relation between exam, task difficulty, level of ability).
general positive affect and achievement is found to be rather
inconsistent [37], specific positive test emotions are found to 1.2.1. Cognitive Interference and Academic Achievement.
affect achievement in a positive way [28, 35], due to the fact However, all types of thoughts do not have the same effects.
that they reinforce motives, strategy use, cognitive resources, Task-related worries, when have been measured as state
and self-regulation. cognitive interference, are more predictive of performance
The relations between negative affect and achievement than are task-irrelevant thoughts. This is consistent with
happen to be more complex, since except for the negative other evidence demonstrating that generalized tendencies
connection of the general negative affect with achievement to have task-related worries are negatively related to task
[35, 36, 38] and the low, but significant, negative effect of the performance under test-like conditions. This relationship
general negative affect on self-regulated learning strategies has been found to vary as regards its strength and to
[39], especially anxiety has been found to be positively be, either direct, or indirect between task-related worries,
related to the self-reported use of rehearsal [35, 36]. measured as state cognitive interference, and performance
on mathematics’ tasks [9, 26, 27, 40]. As test-anxious
1.2. Cognitive Interference as a Cognitive Facet of Test Anxiety. examinees become preoccupied with task irrelevancies, they
Emotion constructs can be linked to momentary emotional may employ less efficient strategies with which to solve the
episodes and moods or to dispositional tendencies of expe- task at hand.
riencing momentary emotions and moods. The terms trait Furthermore, there is some research evidence that task
emotions and trait affectivity are used to signify dispositional generated interference is positively related to test anxiety
tendencies of the individual towards the experience of either scores [9]. Often test-anxious students at all levels of educa-
specific emotions or even positive versus negative emotions tion perform more poorly on standardized tests and receive
in general [35, 36]. From this perspective, to say someone is poorer grades [34] than the grades they ought to because
a test-anxious person implies that he or she has a tendency to anxiety and other test-taking deficiencies interfere with their
see the testing situation in a manner that generally results in performance, either directly or indirectly. These effects of test
feeling anxious. On the other hand, state test anxiety refers anxiety and cognitive interference on achievement have been
to the momentary context-specific appraisals, emotions, confirmed in math problem solving as well [26, 27, 42].
and strategies that emerge during a person-environment
transaction [11].
Test anxiety is a multidimensional construct that consists 1.2.2. Cognitive Interference and Negative Affect. Research has
of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Each shown that task-irrelevant thoughts are also highly correlated
facet is construed as representing a distinct response chan- with negative affect [38, 39]. According to the resource allo-
nel through which test anxiety may be expressed to test cation theory proposed by Ellis and Ashbrook [43], negative
taking situations. Worry, self-preoccupation, and cognitive affect leads to the increase of task-irrelevant thoughts, which
interference compose the cognitive facet of test anxiety overload working memory, thereby reducing the available
[9]. Cognitive interference refers to intrusive thoughts— cognitive capacity [38].
thoughts that are unwanted, undesirable, and disturbing. To sum up, given the emphasis of the resource allocation
Although intrusive thoughts can occur in almost any model in both negative affect and task-irrelevant thoughts,
kind of situation, the bulk of research on cognitive inter- there is a good reason to expect that negative affect as trait
ference has examined their role in test taking situations can predict cognitive interference as state in the mathematics
[40]. Intrusive thoughts occurring in academic situations teaching course attainment in university. Furthermore, the
are hypothesized to be a function of test anxiety and question is if the effects of negative affect on performance
these thoughts can disrupt task performance in anxious are, firstly, distinct and, secondly, mediated by task-irrelevant
individuals. Cognitive interference gets in the way of effective thoughts.
performance because it is the opposite of cognitive acces-
sibility. It diminishes attention to the task the individual is 1.3. Self-Regulated Learning Strategies and Achievement in
performing [41]. Cognitive interference refers to thoughts Mathematics. Self-regulation as an event suggests that self-
that intrude and pop into one’s mind during exams, but regulated learning unfolds within particular contexts and
4 Education Research International

that associations between SRL (cognitive, metacognitive, and assumed to be related to metacognition in the form of
resource management) strategy use and achievement vary metacognitive strategies (MSs) and learning strategies, which
with respect to subject area and should therefore be studied constitute the person’s usual strategies for the control of
at the course level, that is, for an individual discipline or cognition and learning.
study subject [44, 45]. Pintrich [2] stated that there is no self- Specifically, with respect to affect, it was hypothesized
regulatory strategy working equally for all individuals and that trait positive affect and trait negative affect will be
for all tasks, and according to Duncan and McKeachie [46] associated with the use of cognitive, metacognitive, and self-
students’ strategy use depends on the nature of the academic regulatory strategies (Hypothesis 1). Based on the studies of
task. Bless et al. [22], Fiedler [23], Malmivuori [28], and Pekrun
Specifically, the cognitive component of SRL, such as et al. [35, 36], we hypothesized that trait positive affect will
cognitive strategy use, seems to depend on cues of the be positively associated with the use of learning strategies
learning task and environment [47]. Research has shown (Hypothesis 1a); since the relations between negative affect
that mathematics classes were more structured, sequential and the SRL strategies happen to be more complex, based
and less engaging than was the case for social study classes on Magno’s [39], Pekrun et al.’s [35, 36], and Wolters and
[48]. Mathematics tasks were often cognitively less engaging Pintrich’s [30] findings, we expected either no associations
than the more open-ended and diverse tasks found in or low negative associations between trait negative affect and
social studies. These findings indicate that the context in use of self-regulated learning strategies, except for the use of
which the learning task is embedded determines the kind of lower order cognitive strategies, such as rehearsal, for which
cognitive strategy that needs to be activated. However, other we expected their associations with trait negative affect to be
researchers have reported a significant negative correlation positive (Hypothesis 1b).
between deep learning strategies (such as organization, As trait characteristics are more distal from performance
elaboration and critical thinking) use and students’ final than the use of learning strategies, it was hypothesized
statistics, geometry, and mathematics course grades [49–51]. that the effects of positive and negative affect on academic
Furthermore, although high course performers were often performance will be mediated by learning strategies. Specif-
found to report using more deep SRL cognitive strategies ically, since several studies [5, 32, 49] have shown that
than low performers, the use of these strategies did not various aspects of each one of the three general categories
always predict college science course success [29, 32, 52, 53]. of SRL strategies (cognitive, metacognitive, and resource
Similarly, while students who employ metacognitive management) emerged as good predictors of performance in
and resource management SRL strategies generally perform mathematics, trait positive and negative affects were expected
better academically [5, 6, 14, 49, 54], metacognitive strategies to have an indirect effect on course attainment mediated by
were found either to be a moderately negative predictor of use of cognitive, metacognitive, and resource management
achievement in mathematics [50] or not to be significant strategies (Hypothesis 2).
predictors of science success in courses such as mathematics According to Ellis and Ashbrook’s [43] resource alloca-
[29]. tion model and to Linnenbrink et al.’s [38] and Magno’s
As regards the resource management SRL strategies, [39] findings, negative affect as a trait was expected to be
effort regulation and time and study environment manage- positively associated with cognitive interference as a state
ment are two of the most salient predictors of academic (Hypothesis 3a). As trait characteristics are more distal from
achievement [5, 6, 14, 54]. Contrary to the aforementioned performance than state characteristics, we hypothesized that
studies, however, Ozturk et al. [29] found no significant the effects of negative affect on academic performance will be
contribution of effort regulation to the variance in high mediated by cognitive interference (Hypothesis 3b).
school students’ mathematics achievement. With respect to cognitive interference as a cognitive facet
In summary, the literature review regarding SRL strate- of test anxiety, it was hypothesized that it will be negatively
gies reveals an inconsistent pattern of relations of SRL related to course attainment (Hypothesis 4), either directly
strategy use with achievement in the mathematics subject [24, 25, 28–30] (Hypothesis 4a) or indirectly [25–27] via
matter domain. However none of the above studies included learning strategy use [1, 9] (Hypothesis 4b).
mathematics teaching tasks. Thus the question is if SRL strat- Finally, based on the studies of Crawford and Henry [18],
egy use is related to university students’ course attainment in Tellegen et al. [19], and Watson et al. [16], we expected
the didactics of mathematics subject matter. either no associations or low negative associations between
the distinct constructs of positive affect and negative affect
1.4. Aim: Hypotheses. The present study aimed to examine (Hypothesis 5).
the effect of affect (i.e., trait positive affect and trait negative
affect) on cognitive interference (i.e., task-oriented worries
as state), SRL strategies use (i.e., cognitive, metacognitive, 2. Method
and resource management), and academic performance in
university students. 2.1. Participants. The sample consisted of 180 undergraduate
According to the MASRL model [1], interrelations students (6 male, 174 female, mean age = 21.1 years, SD
between each of the above person characteristics and the = 2.3) attending a didactics of mathematics course at the
SRL strategies are expected: both positive and negative affects School of Early Childhood Education at the University of
and cognitive interference, as affective characteristics, are Ioannina in Greece. Participation in the study was voluntary
Education Research International 5

and 78.26% of the students in the course participated in the to relate the material to what I already know.” An example
study. from the subscale used to measure metacognition is “when I
study for this class, I set goals for myself in order to direct
my activities in each study period.” An example from the
2.2. Instruments
subscale used to measure study environment management is
2.2.1. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). “I usually study in a place where I can concentrate on my
The PANAS [16] is a self-report questionnaire which consists course work.”
of two 10-item scales for positive affect and negative affect, For the purposes of a previous study the learning
respectively. For the purposes of a previous study the PANAS strategies section of MSLQ was translated into Greek by two
was translated into Greek and tested for its construct validity of the authors and an independent bilingual person. The two
by Moraitou and Efklides [55]. Participants had to answer to versions of the translated questionnaire were then compared
what extent in general they feel what was described by each and modifications were made. Confirmatory factor analysis
item. Responses were on a Likert-type scale from 1 (very few verified the nine-factor structure of the Greek version of the
times or not at all) to 5 (too many times). learning strategies section of MSLQ [6].
The internal consistency for the two factors of PANAS, Cronbach’s alphas, for the sample of the present study,
namely, Trait Positive Affect and Trait Negative Affect, was were also comparable to those of Pintrich et al. [57] (given
satisfactory: Cronbach’s α = .81 and .86, respectively. in parenthesis): α = .56 (.69) for rehearsal, α = .68 (.76)
for elaboration, α = .76 (.64) for organization, α = .65 (.80)
for critical thinking, α = .69 (.79) for metacognition, α = .75
2.2.2. The Cognitive Interference Questionnaire (CIQ). The (.76) for environment and time management, α = .76 (.69) for
CIQ [41] provides an index of intrusive thinking in a specific effort regulation, α = .68 (.76) for peer learning, and α = .57
situation and consequently it might be regarded as a state (.52) for help seeking.
measure of cognitive interference. The CIQ is a 22-item
questionnaire designed to measure, following performance
on a task, the degree to which people experienced various 2.2.4. Course Attainment. Course attainment in the didactics
types of thoughts while working on it, and the degree of mathematics was measured with students’ final course
to which these thoughts are viewed as interfering with grade, which was converted to a 10-point scale (M = 4.62;
concentration. According to its constructors [41], the CIQ SD = 2.30). Final course grade was assessed with (a) an essay
measures two types of thoughts, task-oriented worries and (maximum score: 3) and (b) an exam, which required recall
off-task thoughts. The task-oriented worries dimension was of information from textbooks and was administered at the
used in the present study. Participants were asked to indicate end of the semester (maximum score: 7).
the frequency of occurrence of task-related thoughts that
intruded while they were working on their examination in 2.3. Procedure. Institutional permission for conducting
the didactics of mathematics course on a 5-point scale from research with human subjects was obtained. All participants
1 (never) to 5 (very often). Cronbach’s α was acceptable: .77. gave informed consent, they were assured confidentiality,
For the purposes of a previous study, the first 10 items and they were provided code numbers in order their
of the CIQ, providing post-performance reports of the anonymity to be preserved. Questionnaires were adminis-
frequency of occurrence of task-oriented worries, had been tered in the classroom. The PANAS was administered at
translated into Greek by the first author and the single factor the beginning of the semester. Participants also provided
structure of the Greek version of the task-oriented worries demographic information, including age, gender, and class
dimension of the CIQ was verified with CFA [56]. level prior to completing the questionnaire. The MSLQ was
administered during a session at the end of the semester,
2.2.3. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire while the CIQ was administered after their final examination
(MSLQ). The MSLQ was developed by Pintrich et al. [57] in the didactics of mathematics course.
as a measure of self-regulated learning. The MSLQ has two
sections, a motivational and a learning strategies section. In 2.4. Statistical Analyses. In order to examine the relation-
this study the learning strategies section was used to assess ships between the various constructs of the study, Pearson
college students’ use of various learning strategies in college correlations were computed in addition to the use of path
courses. The learning strategies section of the MSLQ consists analysis—a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique
of 50 items, divided into nine subscales measuring: rehearsal, for analyzing structural models with observed variables.
elaboration, organization, and critical thinking (representing Sum scores were used for the various scales. Specifically, to
the cognitive aspect of self-regulated learning); metacognition examine the model depicting the hypothesized relationships
(representing the metacognitive aspect of self-regulation); between the subscales of positive and negative affects,
and environment and time management, effort regulation, peer cognitive interference, SRL strategies, and course attainment
learning, and help seeking (representing the management in didactics of mathematics, a path analysis with manifest
component of self-regulation). Responses are given on a 7- variables was computed. Although it is undoubtedly true
point Likert-type scale anchored by 1 (not at all true of me) that the attainment of specific goals (e.g., passing an exam)
and 7 (very true of me). An example from the subscale used may enhance one’s level of trait positive affect and trait
to measure elaboration is “when reading for this class, I try negative affect, the general rule is that personality traits are
6 Education Research International

relatively enduring, and so when an association is found to performance via regulation of the use of SRL strategies. It
between a trait (such as positive and negative affect) and a seems that trait negative affect neither facilitates nor inhibits
specific behavior (such as reaching one’s goal), it is plausible the SRL strategy use in the mathematics teaching subject
to assume that the trait caused the behavior rather than matter domain (H1b).
the other way round. Consequently, the two components of As hypothesized in (H3a) and (H3b), trait negative affect
affect were treated as trait-like variables, while the graded was positively related to cognitive interference and, through
performance, the state cognitive interference, and the nine this, negatively to course attainment. It seems that a student’s
self-regulated learning strategies were treated as domain- trait negative affect explains state cognitive interference (the
specific variables. degree to which a student experienced task-oriented worries,
Path analysis was conducted in EQS Version 6.1 and while working on the examination tasks, and the degree
performed on covariance matrix using the Maximum Like- to which these thoughts are viewed as interfering with
lihood estimation procedure [58]. Initially, in the structural concentration) (explained variance: 18-19%), which in turn
part of the model, the two affective independent variables is translated into lower graded performance.
incorporated in the path model were allowed to correlate As hypothesized in (H4a) state cognitive interference was
between them and predict the nine latent variables of self- found to be directly and negatively related to course attain-
regulated learning strategies, the cognitive interference, and ment (explained variance: 4%). Contrary to (H4b), however,
the dependent variable of course attainment. Simultaneously, cognitive interference was not found to be indirectly related
the latent self-regulation learning strategies variables and to performance via regulation of the use of SRL strategies,
the cognitive interference were allowed to correlate and since, except for a positive correlation with rehearsal, there
predict the dependent variable of course attainment as was a lack of relationships between SRL strategies and task-
well. Modifications suggested by the Wald test were used oriented worries.
to test the necessity of the regressions included in the Finally, as hypothesized in (H5), no association was
model and to ensure a theoretically plausible and statistically found between positive and negative affects. This finding is
restricted model. The chi-square (χ 2 ), the chi-square/degrees consistent to the PANAS constructors’ findings that positive
of freedom (χ 2 /df ) ratio, the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), affect and negative affect are distinct and largely independent
the standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR), and dimensions of the instrument.
the root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA)
were used as indices of the model.
4. Discussion
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of prospective
3. Results kindergarten teachers’ affect and cognitive interference on
their SRL strategy use and academic performance in a
Correlation matrix between positive and negative affect, cog-
didactics of mathematics course. The present study focused
nitive interference, SRL strategies, and mathematics teaching
on three of the students’ characteristics, namely, positive
course attainment is shown in Table 1.
affect, negative affect, and cognitive interference as affective
The path model that was confirmed is displayed in
constructs, and their potential impact on self-regulated
Figure 1. The dotted lines indicate the direct effects of the
learning. Specifically, this study found that SRL strategies
domain specific variables on course attainment. The overall
and course attainment are linked to important trait-like
fit of the model was good, χ 2 (33, N = 173) = 34.31, P =
characteristics, such as trait positive and trait negative affect,
.40, χ 2 /df = 1.04, CFI = 1.00, SRMR = .05, and RMSEA =
and domain-specific characteristics, such as state cognitive
.02 (CI90% .00 to .06) [59].
interference.
As hypothesized in (H1) and (H1a), trait positive affect
Without discounting the claim that SRL skills, in general,
was related to the use of several cognitive, metacognitive, and
are learnable, the results of the present study suggest that
resource management strategies. Specifically, it was positively
personality predispositions impact SRL strategy use and
related to the use of all of the cognitive, metacognitive, and
academic achievement in specific situations [1, 5]. Affect and
resource management strategies, except for critical thinking.
cognitive interference can lead to decisions regarding top-
That is, the higher the trait positive affects the more the use
down self-regulation as both of them appear to be associated
of the SRL strategies.
with metacognitive knowledge in the form of strategies
Furthermore, since all of the cognitive, metacognitive,
(the SRL cognitive, metacognitive and resource management
and resource management strategies, except for rehearsal
strategies) that one tends to use when dealing with a task
and peer seeking, were positively correlated with course
(e.g., a didactic of mathematics course examination essay)
attainment, it seems that a student’s trait positive affect could
[1]. These findings are in accordance with the MASRL
be beneficial to performance (H2). However, this noteworthy
model’s predictions for the person characteristics and sup-
finding of Pearson correlations was not observed in path
port the importance of affective factors in self-regulated
analysis where elaboration was the only SRL strategy found
learning.
to be positively related to course attainment (explained
variance: 11-12%) (H2).
Contrary to (H1) and (H2), trait negative affect was not 4.1. Effects of Positive Affect on SRL Strategy Use and Course
related, either directly to the SRL strategy use, or indirectly Attainment. As regards the predictive ability of positive and
 Education Research International

Table 1: Zero-order correlations among negative affect, positive affect, cognitive interference, self-regulated learning strategies, and course attainment in the didactics of mathematics
subject matter.
Time and
Negative Positive Cognitive Critical study Effort Peer Help Course
Organization Rehearsal Elaboration Metacognition
affect affect interference thinking environment regulation learning seeking attainment
(ORG) (REH) (EL) (MET)
(NA) (PA) (CI) (CT) management (ER) (PL) (HS) (CA)
(TSEM)
NA 1.00
PA −.12 1.00
CI .43∗∗ −.08 1.00
ORG .00 .18∗ .07 1.00
REH .09 .25∗∗ .18∗ .60∗∗ 1.00
EL .00 .19∗ .03 .50∗∗ .46∗∗ 1.00
CT −.03 .10 .03 .27∗∗ .26∗∗ .60∗∗ 1.00
MET .05 .34∗∗ .08 .48∗∗ .56∗∗ .59∗∗ .49∗∗ 1.00
TSEM −.10 .26∗∗ −.04 .39∗∗ .50∗∗ .36∗∗ .12 .45∗∗ 1.00
ER −.11 .29∗∗ −.04 .38∗∗ .42∗∗ .38∗∗ .19∗∗ .51∗∗ .64∗∗ 1.00
PL .09 .28∗∗ .06 .21∗∗ .24∗∗ .37∗∗ .30∗∗ .36∗∗ .09 .10 1.00
HS .11 .18∗ .03 .08 .11 .22∗∗ .20∗∗ .26∗∗ .11 .04 .60∗∗ 1.00
CA −.11 .10 −.20∗∗ .16∗ .09 .34∗∗ .20∗∗ .19∗ .25∗∗ .24∗∗ .20∗∗ .02 1.00
Note: ∗ P = .05 (2-tailed), ∗∗ P = .01 (2-tailed).
7
8 Education Research International

Domain-specific variables
Trait-like variables
Organization (ORG)
.175 (.985) Rehearsal (REH)
.245 (.969)
.186 (.983) Elaboration (EL)
Positive .337 (.918)
affect
.337 (.942) Critical thinking (CT)

Metacognition (MET) Course

.253 (.968)
attainment
Time and study environment
.294 (.956) management (TSEM)

Effort regulation (ER)

.277 (.961)
.191 (.982) Peer learning (PL)
− .208 (.918)
Negative Help seeking (HS)
affect .43 (.903)
Cognitive interference

Figure 1: The final path model displaying the relationships among negative affect, positive affect, cognitive interference, self-regulated
learning strategies, and course attainment in the didactics of mathematics subject matter. Note 1. All paths drawn indicate significant
associations (P < .05). Note 2. Doted lines indicate direct effects on course attainment. Note 3. Errors are given in parenthesis. Note 4.
Correlations of SRL strategies: REH-ORG: .584, EL-ORG: .475, MET-ORG: .450, TSEM -ORG: .362, ER-ORG: .338, PL-ORG: .148, EL-
REH: .417, MET-REH: .495, TSEM -REH: .465, ER-REH: .344, PL-REH: .137, MET-EL: .567, TSEM -EL: .316, ER-EL: .331, PL-EL: .313,
HS-EL: .175, TSEM -MET: .400, ER-MET: .448, PL-MET: .276, HS-MET: .206, ER-TSEM : .619, HS-PL: .588.

negative affect for SRL strategy use, positive affect clearly SRL strategies, was found to be neutral. These findings are
stands out as a powerful predictor. Specifically, positive affect reinforced by Pekrun et al.’s [35, 36] opinion who claims that
was found to positively affect the use of the most cognitive, the influence of anger and shame on achievement, as well as
metacognitive, and resource management strategies in the the effect of anxiety [9], does not always need to be negative.
didactics of mathematics subject matter domain. It seems It may be proved neutral or even positive for achievement
that students who have positive affect are likely to employ in some projects, for specific individuals and under specific
more a variety of self-regulated learning strategies in order circumstances.
to learn new and advanced material and apply concepts
to problem solving and scientific inquiry in a didactics
of mathematics undergraduate course compared to their 4.3. Effects of SRL Strategy Use on Course Attainment.
counterparts lacking positive affect. Although almost all of the SRL strategies were found to
Since elaboration—which is a higher order cognitive be positively correlated with mathematics teaching graded
strategy—was found to be positively associated with course performance, elaboration was the only SRL strategy found
attainment in mathematics teaching, the above finding is to predict it. This finding is consistent with previous research
consistent with the literature showing that positive affect indicating that although high course performers were often
benefits students’ achievement in a significant test, such as found to report using more deep SRL cognitive strategies
a test in the didactics of mathematics course, reinforcing the (such as organization, elaboration, and critical thinking)
effective use of self-regulated learning strategies [28, 35, 36]. than low performers [60, 61], the use of these strategies did
Therefore, the encouraging effect of the positive affect on not always predict college science course success [29, 32, 52,
the SRL strategy use should be taken into account at the 53].
interventions planned to teach college students to be self- It seems that early childhood education students who
regulated learners. tend to paraphrase and summarize effectively the learn-
ing material are likely to perform better in a didactics
of mathematics undergraduate course compared to their
4.2. Effects of Negative Affect on SRL Strategy Use and Course counterparts lacking these qualities. In addition, the finding
Attainment. Contrary to positive affect, negative affect was that elaboration was the only SRL strategy predicting graded
not found to be associated with any SRL strategy use. performance in the didactics of mathematics course is pos-
Since in the present study the negative affect was appointed sible to be due to the composition of the sample, as regards
as a general variable, which consists of emotions such as gender, as 97,7% of the participants were female students.
anxiety, frustration—which is one of the reasons of anger— Wolters and Pintrich [30] demonstrated that while academic
and shame, its influence on performance, via the use of success and self-regulatory (metacognitive) strategy use were
Education Research International 9

similar in mathematics, social sciences, and English for both does not always need to be negative. It may be proved
male and female, female students employed higher levels of neutral or even positive for achievement in some projects,
cognitive strategy use than male students in all three subject for specific individuals and under specific circumstances.
areas. These findings can be associated with test anxiety: Moreover, even in the frame of the experimental research
students with higher levels of test anxiety were more likely for moods, there are findings which support that negative
to employ cognitive strategies but less likely to employ self- affect can lead to more analytical, detailed, but also inflexible
regulatory (metacognitive) strategies and more likely to get ways of processing data, such as the lower order strategy of
lower scores [30]. Similarly, students who participated in rehearsal.
the present study employed higher level of elaboration; they Generally speaking, the lack of relations between SRL
got rather low final course grade (converted to a 10-point strategies and cognitive interference is consistent to the
scale, M = 4.62) and their course attainment was found cognitive-attentional (interference) model, which associates
to be negatively predicted by state cognitive interference test anxiety with deficits in retrieval of previously learned
(explained variance: 4%). information [9].
This finding might indicate that female students, who
compose the majority at the Greek Early Childhood Educa-
4.5. Limitations of the Study. A limitation of this study
tion Schools, lack the skills needed to be able to be themselves
is the less validity of the used self-report measure of
self-regulated learners (the learner’s perspective in SRL) in
self-regulatory skills, since the MSLQ does not accurately
the didactics of mathematics subject matter. Therefore, as
measure the participants’ actual use of SRL strategy. Self-
preservice kindergarten teachers, it is possible that they will
regulated data collected during learning is a more accurate
continue to lack the skills and knowledge needed to be able
measurement of processes related to SRL [64, 65]. Thus,
to teach mathematics successfully and to understand how
more rigorous designs are needed to establish the validity
to help their students achieve SRL (the teacher’s perspective
of the relationship between academic self-regulation and
in SRL) [62, 63]. Since the ability to self-regulate learning
trait-like characteristics using behavioral and observational
is highly useful for preservice teachers’ professional growth
measures of self-regulation (i.e., real-time measurements
during their entire career and for promoting these processes
of learning strategies, think-aloud protocol data, or video-
among students [62, 63], the above indication reinforces
based assessment of strategy use) [66, 67]. The restricted
Kramarski’s and Michalsky’s [63] suggestion that teachers’
nature of the sample should also be noted, especially with
SRL may be developed through participation in training
regard to age and gender. It is also not known whether the
programs that provide opportunities to the teachers to
same pattern of results would be obtained, if college students
control their learning and, consequently, their teaching.
of other disciplines, other than early childhood education,
were involved.
In conclusion, our findings suggest that affect as general
4.4. Relations between Negative Affect and Cognitive Interfer-
disposition influences in distinct ways students’ SRL strategy
ence. An interesting finding of the present study concerns
use and course attainment in the didactics of mathematics
the positive relationship of trait negative affect with state
subject matter domain. Future research should further
cognitive interference. As it has already been mentioned,
clarify, in different college student groups and in different
negative effect as disposition has been appointed and mea-
age groups, how affective factors predispose individuals to
sured as a general variable, which includes emotions such as
employ SRL (how affective factors encourage or discourage
anxiety and frustration [2, 35, 36]. Seeing that state cognitive
individuals to become self-regulating learners) and how
interference as a cognitive facet of test anxiety is appointed
these dispositions interact with learning situations in devel-
as instant emotional state, experienced before or during a
oping relevant self-regulation strategies. It will also be helpful
particular test [9], it is presumable that a great part of its
for future research to examine the variety of specialized
variance is explained by more general dispositions such as the
emotions, such as hope, pride, anger, and shame, which
trait negative affect and/or test anxiety as personality char-
arouse in the academic environment, and to evaluate the role
acteristic. Furthermore, the specific finding, as well as the
that they may play in self-regulated learning.
finding of the indirect (through state cognitive interference)
negative effect of trait negative affect on attainment in the
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