What does good learning FEEL like?

Learning can be frustrating and exhilarating. Is there an emotion that’s associated with optimal learning states? 0:00 An introduction 0:18 Flow experiences and learning 1:37 Happiness and learning 2:12 Frustration and learning 3:14 Tiredness and learning 4:27 A cycle of feelings If you want to be the first to know about the courses I’m releasing, sign up here: Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: How visualization helps you learn: On effective practice: REFERENCES For the classic piece on flow, see: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I pulled some quotes on the flow experience from: Jackson, S. A. (1996). Toward a conceptual understanding of the flow experience in elite athletes. Research quarterly for exercise and sport, 67(1), 76-90. I also can’t resist mentioning a method paper. This is the one to read to understand the current state of the research and how researchers have gone about defining flow: Abuhamdeh, S. (2020). Investigating the “flow” experience: Key conceptual and operational issues. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 158. The link between rest and deliberate practice comes from Ericsson et al.’s first big paper on deliberate practice, cited below at pages 370-71. AFAIK, it hasn’t been an aspect that’s been deeply explored. Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological review, 100(3), 363. The relationship between confusion, frustration, and learning is complex - more complex than I alluded to in the video. Ryan Baker and his colleagues have done a lot of work recently exploring this space - here’s a couple of representative pieces: Richey, J. E., Andres-Bray, J. M. L., Mogessie, M., Scruggs, R., Andres, J. M., Star, J. R., ... & McLaren, B. M. (2019). More confusion and frustration, better learning: The impact of erroneous examples. Computers & Education, 139, 173-190. (finding that combined “confusion and frustration“ predicted learning) Richey, J. E., McLaren, B. M., Andres-Bray, M., Mogessie, M., Scruggs, R., Baker, R., & Star, J. (2019). Confrustion in Learning from Erroneous Examples: Does Type of Prompted Self-explanation Make a Difference?. In Artificial Intelligence in Education: 20th International Conference, AIED 2019, Chicago, IL, USA, June 25-29, 2019, Proceedings, Part I 20 (pp. 445-457). Springer International Publishing. (finding that combined “frustration and confusion“ predicted lower learning). On the role of mistakes in learning, check out: Metcalfe, J. (2017). Learning from errors. Annual review of psychology, 68, 465-489.