Internet cognitive failure affects learning progress as mediated by cognitive anxiety and flow while playing a Chinese antonym synonym game with interacting verbal–analytical and motor-control

• Internet cognitive failure was positively correlated to cognitive anxiety.
• Internet cognitive failure was negatively correlated to flow experience.
• Cognitive anxiety was negatively correlated to learning progress and flow experience.
• Flow experience was positively correlated to learning progress.
• App with verbal-analytical and motor control is useful for students with low ICF.

According to the person-artifact-task model, the process of gameplay can trigger a range of emotional responses and wide variation in students' behaviors, consequently leading to varying learning outcomes. How internet cognitive failure (ICF) can affect a game player's cognitive anxiety and flow experience, and how this interplays with learning progress was explored in this study. Ninth grade students participated in playing “Running Chinese Zodiac”, a Chinese antonyms and synonyms App game, which combines interactions of verbal–analytical aspects with motor-control. The motor-control aspect required players to control a tilt mechanism by tilting the smartphone left or right to select the correct answer. Data from 149 students were collected and subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results revealed that ICF was positively correlated to cognitive anxiety, but it was negatively correlated to flow experience. Cognitive anxiety was negatively correlated to flow experience and learning progress; while flow experience was found to be positively correlated to learning progress. The results implied that a game with verbal–analytical and motor-control would be useful to students with a low level of ICF to learn Chinese synonyms and antonyms.