The purpose of this laboratory study involving undergraduates learning a complex videogame was to address gaps in the empirical literature regarding the role of emotions in self-regulated learning by testing opposing predictions made by the hedonic tone and dual pathway perspectives. Whereas hedonic tone perspective suggests pleasant emotions facilitate performance, the dual pathway perspective suggests that the activation potential of emotions takes precedence over the pleasantness of emotions, and in doing so predicts that changes in negative activating (e.g., angry, frustrated) and positive deactivating emotions (e.g., calm, relaxed) are positively and negatively related to performance, respectively. Using a repeated-measures design and discontinuous mixed-effects growth modeling, analyses focused on within-person relationships between emotions and videogame performance over periods of skill acquisition, transition adaption, and reacquisition adaption. Results supported the hedonic perspective. Specifically, increases in positive and negative emotions in skill acquisition and adaptation were associated with increases and decreases in performance, respectively, regardless of activation potential. Additionally, dynamic effects were found for both negative-activating, promotion-focused emotions and negative deactivating emotions. In particular, negative associations with performance became weaker throughout adaptation. Results are discussed regarding implications for considering the role of emotions when training involves a complex, dynamic, and fast-paced task.

Keywords: Emotions, skill acquisition, adaptive performance, complex task learning, self-regulated learning