Affect

Summary

Cognition and affect are distinct yet coupled aspects of human experience. Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge, understanding, and reasoning. It encompasses perception, attention, memory, language, and problem solving. On the other hand, affect pertains to emotions, interest, desire, motivation, moods, and feelings. This chapter explains Zeigarnik effect, a psychological phenomenon named after the Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, who discovered it in 1927. We like to achieve closure. In this sense, we like to complete things we have started. There are four levels of such affective boosts, each affective boost level targeting a different aspect of the need to close: Avoiding Loss, Endowed Progress, Goal Gradient, and Completion Itself. Several studies, including meta‐analyses, suggest that students with a mastery goal orientation tend to favor learning strategies that promote deep understanding of the material.