On the psychology and cognitive science side of the fence, this process is reflected in the concept of the formation of schema, which are complex mental structures that function in the working memory as if they were simple individual tasks, taking up only one of the available four slots in working memory. These form when a group of simple tasks are performed together so frequently that the individual tasks comprising it no longer seem separate from the task itself.

The reason we can’t listen to two conversations or read a book while chatting on the phone is because those activities are all taking place on the same neurological channel, the phonological loop. The loop processes spoken and written language, and we can’t run more than one activity through it at a time, so each of those activities is competing for our attention on the same channel. Similarly, we can’t focus on more than one thing in front of our eyes despite the fact that our field of vision encompasses a wide variety of things at any one given time. The best we can do is quickly switch back and forth between them. That’s because all of that information is coming in on our other channel, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, which among its many other duties processes the shape, location, and movement of the things we see.

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. 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.

The journey to fluency leads the learner though behaviorist techniques that blended into cognitivist role-play and gamification practice exercises, that then blended into open world application, discovery, and adjustment absent formal instruction. Each theory and its corresponding techniques was vital to the process of moving the learner forward in the most efficient and effective fashion to achieve their learning goal. As an instructional designer, that is your mission, and these are your tools. Use all of them.