The tango between perceived cognitive load and enjoyment of reading in determining reading achievement

How students perceive the difficulty of a reading task may significantly influence their reading process and outcome. This perception of task difficulty is determined by the objective features of a reading task and their affective responses toward it. From the stance of cognitive load theory, the current study examined the interaction between students’ perceived difficulty of reading tasks and enjoyment of reading in determining reading achievement. Specifically, we examined the moderation of reading enjoyment on the relationship between perceived difficulty of reading tasks and reading achievement. We used the OECD Programme for International Students Achievement 2018 data of 469,194 15-year-old students (51% girls, M = 15.79, SD = 0.29) from 69 economies. Results of multilevel structural equation modeling with latent interactions indicated that (a) perceived cognitive load negatively predicted reading achievement, (b) enjoyment of reading negatively predicted perceived cognitive load and therefore benefited reading achievement, and (c) enjoyment of reading deteriorated the negative relation between perceived intrinsic load and reading achievement. Reading enjoyment seemed to be a double-edged sword to reading achievement. These results have practical implications for reading materials design and reading instruction as well as theoretical implications for understanding different aspects of cognitive load.