The relationship between invested mental effort and self-assessed understanding is weak and inconsistent, with most correlations non-significant and mixed directions¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3 · i0 negligible
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i0 57% of the measurement-point correlations between invested mental effort and self-assessed understanding were not significant, with mostly negative coefficients (r = −.04 to −.19) and only one significant positive correlation. → Katrin Schuessler 2026

Evidence¶

Katrin Schuessler 2026¶

Katrin Schuessler, Jenna Koenen, Elke Sumfleth, Marvin Rost. (2026). Variations in Repeated Measures of Cognitive Load and Interest During Complex Learning Tasks. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10105-4

q3 · i0 · associational · r2

Pairwise raw-data correlations across 21 measurement points in the N = 360 sample. The article reports 16 negative coefficients (r = −.04 to −.19, eight significant) and five positive ones (r = .00 to .18), only one significant (MP2.5).

"For invested mental effort and self-assessed understanding (Fig. 10, upper left, light grey line), 57% (i.e. 12 measuring points) of the correlations were not significant, indicating a weak and inconsistent linear relationship."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Perceived task difficulty correlates negatively with self-assessed understanding and with interest at essentially all measurement points, while interest and self-assessed understanding correlate positively throughout — related
• Pairwise relationships between invested mental effort, perceived task difficulty, interest, and self-assessed understanding fluctuate across measurement points, with most correlations stronger when more content knowledge is presented — a broader claim this one bears on
• Invested mental effort and interest are only weakly and inconsistently positively correlated across measurement points, with some correlations non-significant — related
• Repeated measures of invested mental effort, perceived task difficulty, interest, and self-assessed understanding differ significantly across measurement points within complex learning tasks and are not adequately represented by their mean — related
• Greater time and effort invested in the task correlate with better integration and smaller calibration error — related
• Mental effort correlates negatively with self-assessments regardless of whether learners receive up-front cue information — related
• Mental effort is more suitably modeled as a non-linear than linear predictor of learning outcomes in most re-analyzed studies — related
• Effort's relation to achievement differs by operationalization: quality-of-learning effort shows a positive link, quantity-of-learning effort is weak, conditional, or negative — related
• Students use invested mental effort as a cue when judging their learning, and self-rated mental effort is negatively related to judgments of learning — related