The Motivation/Attitude-Driven Behavior (MADB) Model in E-Learning and the Effects on Mouse Dynamics

Introduction

Experiential and affective computing are important in cognitive computing and it would be good to develop an effective construct to measure a users' cognitive performance and emotions so that an automated adaptation can be done to improve the user's experience when using an e-learning system. In this research, we are interested to examine how formal cognitive processes during menu search task in an e-learning environment can be modeled and measured by considering a student's stress perception, motivation, attitude and behavior, based on the Motivation/Attitude-driven Behavior (MADB) model proposed by Wang (Wang, 2007a). His research demonstrated how the MADB model was applied in a software engineering organization, but we envisage the model can also be fit into the e-learning environment. We would like to examine the effects of menu design on learners’ stress perceptions, motivation and attitudes during the search tasks, and to determine the correlations of the learners’ stress perceptions and cognitive states to their mouse behaviors. If significant correlations between the student's behavior and his/her mouse dynamics can be found, then we strongly believe that there is a high potential to compute the student's cognitive processes based on mouse dynamics analysis.

Cognitive load theory emphasizes devising effective instructional procedures to enhance learning based on the understanding of human cognitive process working with long-term and short-term memory. It also studies how cognitive process relates to attention. Wang et al (Wang, Patel, & Patel, 2013) defined attention as a perceptive process of the brain, which individual selectively concentrates or focuses the mind and proper responses on external stimuli, internal motivations, and/or threads of thought. According to them, attention is triggered by all five primary sensory receptors (vision, hearing, smelling, taste and touch) but it is dominantly manipulated by the vision sensory receptor. Attention can also be triggered by derived internal senses of position, time, and motion at the sensation layer. Cognitive performance could also be affected by emotional, motivational and attitude factors. Wang (Wang, 2007a) defines emotions as a set of states or results of human perception that interprets the feelings on external stimuli into either pleasant or unpleasant category. Unpleasant or negative emotions could inhibit necessary resources being recruited for further cognitive process by human mental, which prevent optimal skill execution (Beilock & Ramirez, 2011). While motivation and attitude can drive individual's cognitive behavior, and triggers the transformation from thought into action. Therefore, motivation has considerable impact on behavior and influence the ways a person thinks and feels (Westen, 1999). Due to these reasons, emotional and motivational factors should be considered when developing instructional procedures in a learning environment, to ensure that the learners are always ready to accept and execute demanding learning tasks.