# Psychological Foundations for Effective Human-Computer Interaction in Education
## 3 Psychological Factors in HCI  
Building on previous discussions of HCI, this section explores psychological factors influencing how learners interact with technology, emphasizing emotional, cognitive, and interactional engagement. We refer to these factors as ECI in HCI, and these are factors which form the foundation of our framework. These factors, along with considerations for designing effective educational technologies and the methods for doing so, are summarized in Table 1.  
_Emotions_ significantly shape learners' engagement with educational technologies. Positive emotions such as curiosity, satisfaction, and enjoyment foster intrinsic motivation, sustain engagement and improve learning outcomes. Conversely, negative emotions like frustration, anxiety, or boredom can create barriers to effective learning. Systems designed with emotional intelligence, capable of detecting and adapting to users' emotional states, have demonstrated effectiveness in maintaining learners' motivations and reducing frustration; evoking positive emotions and mitigating negative ones creates enriching and supportive learning environments. Furthermore, adaptive interfaces \begin{table}
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**Psychological Factors** & **What** & **How** & **Examples of Educational Platforms** \\ \hline Emotions & - & Positive emotions: curiosity, satisfaction, enjoyment & - & Systems with emotional intelligence & **EduTechRPG** (ENACT, ACCORD, S-Cube, CODINC): Emotionally intelligent virtual agents provide tailored guidance and feedback to regulate emotions and sustain motivation, as well as manage conflict resolution. \\  & - & Negative emotions: frustration, anxiety, boredom & - & **HYP-Activity Books**: Blend digital and physical elements to foster curiosity and reduce anxiety. \\ \hline Cognition & - & Retention of information in memory & - & Tools that prevent cognitive overload by managing information density & - & **Khan Academy**: Step-by-step instructional design with personalized learning paths. \\  & - & Attention & - & information density & - & **Duolingo**: Uses adaptive learning and spaced repetition to enhance memory retention. \\  & - & management & - & Scaffolding: breaking down complex tasks into manageable steps & - & **Hyper-Activity Books**: Integrate digital and physical interactions to reinforce learning. \\  & - & Maintaining an adequate cognitive load & - & Chunking: grouping information into meaningful units & - & **Hoogle Classroom: Facilitates peer interaction, discussions, and collaborative learning. S-Cube (EduTechRPG): Multiplayer role-playing games for training soft skills in collaborative settings. ENACT; ACCORD: Provide through emotionally intelligent virtual agents, supporting users in negotiation and conflict resolution scenarios. CODINC: Coding and robotics tools promoting problem-solving and collaborative learning.** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
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Table 1: ECI in HCI: The first column presents the psychological factor, the second column (What) outlines the main elements associated with each factor, the third column (How) describes how these elements can be implemented in educational technologies, and the fourth (Educational Platforms) provides examples based on case studies. that track emotional metrics are crucial to adjusting content delivery in real time and to sustaining emotional engagement [37; 38; 39]. _Cognitive Processes_ encompass how learners process information, retain it in memory, and sustain attention while they interact with educational technologies. These processes are fundamental in supporting cognitive engagement, and their optimization is essential for effective learning outcomes. As reported above, Cognitive Load Theory [6; 7] highlights the need to balance information complexity so that learners do not feel overwhelmed or bored. Tools designed with this principle aim to manage information density, reduce cognitive overload, and maintain adequate cognitive stimulation.