Considering Cognitive Load
Taking a Load Off
Even without formal psychological training, the concept of cognitive load is one that most people are intuitively familiar with, especially at the point of catastrophic failure. We’ve all been in situations where we were stressed out or we even physically overheated because a task suddenly grew in difficulty and complexity without warning; Or similarly, experienced a situation in which a great deal of information has been dumped on us in a short period of time where the end result of both scenarios was that very little of that information managed to stick with us when we tried to recall it later. In the world of learning theory, this state is known as cognitive overload, and keeping learners from running smack into it is a big part of what we do behind the scenes and under the hood as instructional designers.
Working with Working Memory
Before we talk about cognitive load though, it is important to understand where that “weight” is being applied. In Hitch and Baddeley’s model, working memory describes the part of our cognition that is consciously focused on something and actively processing it into long term memory (or conversely pulling something out of LTM to perform a task). Working memory is an extremely finite mental resource. Most recent studies on memory have found that, without using tricks like clustering, linking, or repeating information back to ourselves over and over again, we can really only handle three or four active mental processes at once. If new information is introduced before the information already in working memory is finished processing into long term storage, the brain will either ignore that new information, literally “in one ear and out the other” as grandma used to say, or drop what it was already working on in order to incorporate the newer item.
Either way, something will be lost.
Three Types of Load
So what your working memory can handle at any one given time, is the limit of how much “load” you can bear. According to the research done by Sweller, that load comes in three flavors: intrinsic, germane, and extraneous.
Intrinsic load is inherent to the learning task, it is the information you wish to learn or the skill you wish to acquire in and of itself. Intrinsic load can’t be avoided, it has to be shouldered in order to acquire the desired knowledge and/or capability. If you want to learn Italian, for example, all the vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, sentence structure, and idiomatic terminology that make up that language would qualify as intrinsic load in your learning process. Until you know those things, you haven’t learned Italian.
The only mitigating factor with intrinsic load is how much direct and/or tangentially related knowledge the learner already has regarding the topic. If they’ve heard people speaking Italian before, for example, there may be less effort necessary in acquiring proper pronunciation, or if they’ve learned a second language previously, they may have developed some techniques that would speed the process of learning a third language along. Other than that, though, they simply have to put in the work.
As for the other two types of load, germane load represents the mental effort being applied to the acquisition of the intrinsic, whereas extraneous load represents any mental effort not being applied toward that purpose. If what you are doing is not germane to the intrinsic, it is extraneous.
Designing with Germane and Extraneous Load in Mind
There is a long running and nuanced debate in academic circles about whether or not germane load is actually separate from intrinsic load or if the concepts are redundant, but I envision germane and extraneous load as existing in their own separate duality apart from intrinsic load. Where intrinsic load is static and reliant on the learner’s intelligence and previous experience for any kind of mitigation, germane and extraneous load are representative of factors that can be influenced by the design of the instruction.
Sources of extraneous load abound. Any kind of mandatory preparatory work, distraction, required gateway, or housekeeping/busy work that pulls someone away from the learning task can qualify. Things like poorly designed interfaces that take a lot of time and energy to become familiar with, article references that require the learner to stop what they’re doing and figure out how to access relevant information in another location, technical or bureaucratic gateways such as account creation requirements or an arcane installation process, or perhaps just a good old-fashioned overly verbose introduction with no real informational value. There are a million of these and a good designer can make great strides on behalf of the learner by minimizing their impact.
That being said, a top shelf designer doesn’t just remove obstacles, they also build better pathways. This can be as simple as adding a mouse-over tool-tip rather than requiring the learner to watch a tutorial to learn a function, or as in-depth as chaining and chunking an entire curriculum lesson by lesson to ensure that each new step the learner takes is fully supported by what came before. It isn’t just about minimizing the extraneous, it is also important to streamline things to maximize the effectiveness of the learner’s efforts to shoulder the germane load as well, and the only real limit in doing that is your own creativity as a designer.
For a more personalized run down of cognitive load streamlining opportunities in your lesson, curriculum, or build, contact us for a consultation using the links below.
Searching for an effective way of training your employees or students?
- Designed for rapid adoption
- Optimized for maximum retention
- Customized for your audience
Check out our customized learning modules!
About the author
Chavis N. Comer
Founder and Senior Instructional Systems Designer of Tohmes Training, Mr. Comer has nearly two decades of experience developing training programs for clients representing a variety of industries across dozens of different countries. From the federal government to the banking and tech sectors to local K-12 school systems and universities, he has provided consultation and design services to a truly diverse portfolio of clientele.