Cognitive load

What is cognitive load theory? You probably know that learning takes effort, and this effort can feel like a load, cognitively. Sometimes the cognitive load isn’t very much at all and learning feels easy. Sometimes the task is too hard, and you have cognitive overload. Ideally there’s a perfect match between what you're trying to learn and the cognitive load you can handle. Cognitive load theory starts with the idea that working memory is a bottleneck between new information processed by your sensory memory and knowledge that’s stored in your long term memory. Your senses are always taking in large amounts of information from the environment, like ambient sounds or the temperature, but you ignore most of it. The information you pay attention to gets filtered into your working memory. The working memory has limited capacity. Here, information can be manipulated and managed and then either lost and forgotten or stored in the long term memory which is more stable and has no known limits. Once information is in long term memory, it can be transferred to make decisions and solve problems in real life situations.

Cognitive load theory is a living theory that is being adjusted based on new studies. Since the working memory has limited capacity, the amount of information it’s processing can be considered the “cognitive load.” Currently, there are two kinds of cognitive load: intrinsic and extraneous.

Intrinsic load is the load related to the learning task, like the topic of a lecture, or the skill you’re supposed to practice. It’s the “good” load that’s intended and expected to be there. So, for example, if the task is to learn to identify arm muscles, the intrinsic load may involve the name and location of each muscle.

Extraneous load is the load not related to the learning task. This can be irrelevant sounds and images from the environment like distracting buzzing from a mobile device or from the instructional content itself containing unnecessary details that overcomplicate learning. So, when learning to identify muscles, having a diagram that includes famous sports figures can be a distraction and serve as an extraneous load.

Together, the intrinsic and extraneous load make up the total cognitive load. So then the general goal is to limit extraneous load. But, there’s a third important factor that used to be called germane load and is now also called germane processing. You can think of this as the attention you're giving to learning at a given time. For example, concentrating intensely on anatomical images, tells you that germane processing is present. If you are daydreaming, your germane processing isn’t there handling the intended intrinsic load. Clearly, no learning can happen when you’re not paying attention - and you have no germane processing applied to what you’re supposed to learn.

When you’re ready to learn, the best scenario is having all your working memory handling intrinsic load. There’s almost always some extraneous load, but sometimes you can get close, and you can experience a “flow” state where there’s complete immersion into what you’re learning and you lose track of time.