Cognitive Load Theory - 1
Could you be doing these small things that actually make it harder for your learners?
This article is the start of a series and introduces cognitive load theory plus the start of a list of things we may be doing that actually adds to the cognitive load of our learners.
If you've ever had a learner exclaim "my brain hurts!" - or even said this yourself as a student - it's likely we've got a case of cognitive overload on our hands.
Cognitive load does not cause physical pain in the brain tissue itself, but it can create intense mental exhaustion and physical tension that feels like a hurt. And as instructional designers, trainers/assessors, teachers, educators, facilitators of learning... whatever you want to call yourself... it's in everyone's best interests to understand cognitive load, how it impacts learning and what we can do about it.
What is cognitive load?
Simply put - it's the total amount of mental effort our working memory uses at any given time.
Our brains are constantly bombarded with information and there's a distinct process that our brains use to filter, select and remember information. Cognitive load theory was developed as an explanation for how this happens.
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT)
Like most things to do with the brain, behaviour and learning, there's a theory for that! But before we get into the theoretical underpinnings, I want to make the distinction between information that has a biological basis and information that does not because this is the premise of cognitive load theory.
Biological basis for CLT
Information with a biological basis is information that we have evolved to acquire easily and automatically. For example, our brains have adapted to recognise human faces and facial expressions, to listen to and speak native language during childhood, and to perform general movement of our bodies. Learning this type of information does not require explicit teaching, studying, or external motivation and does not strain our working memory. It has low cognitive load.
On the other hand, biologically secondary information requires conscious effort to take in. It takes up our working memory, needs to be explicitly taught, and requires conscious effort to process. Biologically secondary information is virtually everything taught in education and training institutions.
This conceptual framework is the foundation of cognitive load theory (CLT) which was developed by educational psychologist John Sweller. CLT only applies to secondary biological information. That is, CLT applies to everything taught as part of formal education.
CLT
Cognitive load theory gives us the understanding that human learning is limited by the capacity of working memory - which is extremely limited; both in terms of the volume of information it can hold (about 3 or 4 items) and the time it can hold that information (for about 30 seconds) before it starts to decay.
When the capacity in our working memory is exceeded, there’s no more that we can actively process and we’ll quickly notice things are lost. We experience cognitive overload and errors, and will have trouble remembering.
Cognitive load theory tell us that if we want to improve those odds, we need to structure our information delivery in a way that matches how the human brain processes information
How does the brain process information?
Adapted from Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), the diagram below illustrates the sequence of flow for incoming information, processing in the brain, and long-term storage of that information for later use.
You’ll note that at each stage there is also the potential for the information to be forgotten.
Our sensory registers are picking up phenomenal amounts of data from our environment. This is what can be heard, smelt, seen, felt, tasted. It’s all fractions of seconds long and it’s only when we specifically pay attention to something that we move it into working memory to make sense of it.
Because working memory is limited and short term, we try to prolong the time before information is lost so we engage in rehearsal or repetition to try and keep the information accessible for longer. You'll have experienced this anytime you've chanted a phone number to yourself to try and remember the digits for dialling.
For information we want to recall and use at a later time, we put more effort into the "remembering" process with the hopes of moving that information to our long-term brain storage. It’s here that we find our memories and understandings of what things mean to us; it's long-term memory that is necessary for learning.
The duration and capacity of storage in the long term-structures are thought to be unlimited, with our brains capable of holding massive amounts of information. And we’re pretty clever at organising all of that information with the use of schemas. Schemas help us block related concepts together and link new information to old. But the trick with memory is being able to recall it. It’s the recall that allows us to take a test, perform in an assessment, understand how to interact in certain situations. And the quicker and easier information is to recall out of long term memory, the better our capacity to problem solve.
Types of cognitive load
Sweller's theory from the late 1980s said there are three types of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous and germane. Now, more recent thinking has substantially redefined the cognitive load framework, transitioning to a dual-load model centered on intrinsic load and extraneous load only.
Germane load
Necessary for learning, germane load is the brain power we use to process new information and build the permanent knowledge and schemas we file away in long-term memory. What makes germane load interesting is that we know it exists, we know it’s necessary, but it’s not said to be measurable; it happens entirely within the learner's internal processing system whereas intrinsic and extraneous load are easier to isolate.
Intrinsic load (difficulty of the topic)
This is the inherent difficulty or natural complexity of a topic. Some things we learn about, are by nature, difficult topics. We can’t make them less so, but we can aim to make learning the harder stuff, easier. Intrinsic load cannot be reduced; only managed.
Extraneous load (how the information is presented)
Extraneous load is the brain power to process what we’re trying to take in. If we're spending a lot of mental effort trying to decipher content and its meaning, we're wasting that effort. Poor design, clutter, confusing instructions... all things that add to extraneous load and all things that can and should be minimised or eliminated.
Sources of extraneous load can include:
Fonts
Diagrams
Noise in the environment
Visual clutter or messiness in the surroundings
Poor processes
Shifting schedules
Temperature
Each of these can mean extra mental effort is required to concentrate on the learning.
The essence of CLT is this:
Don’t overload the brain, and people have a better chance of learning.
As instructional designers, we need to be aware of contributing sources of pressure and information overload.
So then, what are some of the common ways we could be unwittingly overloading our learners' brains?
There are many, but this article will make a start on the long list by providing a few key examples relevant to information we must see or read to take in.
1) USE OF ALL CAPS
When ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ARE USED IN UNNECESSARY CIRCUMSTANCES LIKE THIS, cognitive load increases. The brain has to slow down to decipher what words the letter combinations are producing. This is because capital letters take up a "block" and the word heights are uniform. The brain must read letter-by-letter to piece together the word.
On the other hand, when reading words in sentence case like this, the brain can pick out the shapes of words because of how the letters have ascenders and descenders: "tails" that go up (like 'l', 'd', 'h', 't') and "tails" that go down (like 'g', 'p', 'y'). The brain recognises the silhouette/shape of the word at a glance.
While there are some circumstances where all caps is appropriate to draw attention, such as "SUBMIT HERE", to lower cognitive load and aid readability of your text, use sentence case.
2) Using "full justify" alignment in documents
While full justification creates clean, structured margins on both sides of a page, it forces software to stretch or compress the spaces between words to make each line the exact same width. This can leave unnatural and uneven gaps between words making it more difficult for readers to navigate where the next line is.
This phenomenon increases cognitive fatigue and tracking errors. It is better to use left-align with its predictable word spacing to reduce cognitive load.
3) Using non-word symbols & figures
Using an ampersand (&) instead of the word "and" in standard running text can increase extraneous cognitive load by introducing visual disruptions. While it may be part of a brand name or known abbreviation (e.g. P&C), using '&' in regular sentences forces the brain to adjust to the non-words & tiny visual speed bumps that require a split-second of extra decoding. It's also more difficult for readers with dyslexia, low literacy levels or English as a second language to fluidly process symbols mixed into text.
Instead, spelling out the word "and" can allow the eye to glide more smoothly and lower cognitive load.
What now?
We've kicked off the CLT series of articles with three practical examples of formats that pop up regularly in instructional text and that add cognitive load.
Make it easier for your learners:
Use all caps sparingly
Left align text on the page
Spell out the word 'and' and avoid other symbols (instead of text) in written text
In our next article, we'll look at three more examples of things that add unnecessary mental effort.
This article is AITAS Rating 1
What is the AITAS?
20.10.26
Written by Michelle Charlton who has a degree in Behavioural Science (Psychology) and post-graduate degrees in Learning and Development, Learning Science, and Education Studies.