Do students need more motivational resources or more cognitive resources for better learning?

A cognitive learning task can impose a harmful load on the working memory capacity of learners. This load stems either from the intrinsic difficulty or instructional format of the task. Better learning requires optimizing the load or avoidance of exceeding the capacity. Reviewed literature suggests tailoring an instructional design to learners' expertise levels. However, the allocation of the available capacity to the learning calls upon learners' motivation. Whether students draw upon more cognitive resources or more motivational resources is not clear enough. This review explains the need for further examination of how an instructional intervention must be tailored not just to suit the expertise levels, but also to meet learners' motivational needs (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.