#404: “I was so confused about the gases unit until now”: Mapping the Dynamics of Epistemic Affects and Cognitive Processing in Learning Gas Laws on YouTube

YouTube has emerged as a key space for informal science learning, where learners actively engage with complex ideas outside formal instruction. This exploratory study examines how epistemic affects and cognitive processing interact during science learning on YouTube, focusing on the topic of Gas Laws. Using search terms from Ambitious Science Teaching and the Next Generation Science Standards, 131 videos and 18,290 viewer comments were analyzed through a human-in-the-loop, AI-assisted coding process based on epistemic affects and Bloom’s taxonomy. Preliminary findings indicate that curiosity, vexation, and joy often co-occurred with higher-order cognitive processes such as analyzing and evaluating, suggesting that both positive and negative emotions can stimulate deeper reasoning and conceptual understanding. The study underscores the importance of recognizing learners’ affective expressions as integral to their cognitive engagement and offers new insights for designing emotionally and intellectually supportive environments in informal digital science learning.