Cognitive Load Theory: Why Information Overwhelms Us

Imagine yourself in such a situation: you were sitting at your PC trying to prepare yourself for the exam that you would have tomorrow, with six open tabs while some music was playing in the background, three group chats sending you messages via your phone, and the Notion planner that you had not been using for a long time. By the time of 11 p.m., you were not able to recall which chapter you should be studying. You are not a lazy person. You are just cognitively overloaded. 

As a result of various experiments, it was proven that the maximum number of elements in our working memory is equal to seven (Miller, 1956). Generally, it is even less than that when a person has to process information actively. However, life goes on and asks for something else from us: our inboxes with plenty of messages, different browser tabs, numerous instructions,  etc. What does it depend on, and what makes the average number of elements become an overload? The answer to this question is Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). Cognitive Load Theory was created by an educational psychologist, John Sweller and explains how the limitations of our brain capacity influence learning and memorising (Sweller, 1988). 

In this article, the reader will find out about Cognitive Load Theory, three types of cognitive load, impacts of brain overload on learning and decision making, and some management techniques. 

What Is Cognitive Load Theory? 

Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) refers to how the working memory’s limitation can impact the learning process. Working memory refers to the cognitive mechanism that processes information. Working memory can only handle a certain quantity of information, unlike long-term memory, which can hold an unlimited quantity of information. Once the limit is reached, there is a negative impact on performance (Cowan, 2001). 

Sweller created CLT in the 1980s while researching problem solving in mathematics and physics (Sweller, 1988). Sweller discovered that some scientifically based methods of presentation of the material were actually harmful since they added some extra details to the main concepts, making the learning process even harder. Due to CLT, a new perspective was born regarding the design of instruction in psychology and education; both ease and accuracy are very important aspects in it. 

It may be helpful to view the working memory as a desk of a person working with paper documents. It is rather convenient to have several folders open at once, but if the number of them becomes too big, a person will not be able to work effectively since the folders occupy too much space on the desk. 

Cognitive load is the factor that has a crucial influence on the volume of information that is to be learned by the person who is in the process of onboarding, interpreting the instructions about his/her treatment from the doctor, or performing some actions simultaneously. The recognition of this widely known limitation of the cognitive sphere is the first step towards ensuring the cognitive constraints of the designed information.

Three Types of Cognitive Load: Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane 

Three forms of cognitive effort that have been recognised through CLT, which collectively determine whether the activity can be considered difficult or easy (Sweller, 2010).

Intrinsic cognitive load

Intrinsic cognitive load refers to the cognitive effort entailed in the presentation of cognitive load by the content or nature of the content. Mental arithmetic is less cognitively loaded than calculus because calculus involves working with more pieces of information than mental arithmetic does. The intrinsic form of cognitive load depends on the nature of the content as well as the previous knowledge of the person since something difficult for a novice can be easy for an expert (Paas et al., 2003). 

Read More: Mental Fatigue Explained: How Cognitive Load Secretly Leads to Burnout

Extraneous load

The extraneous load is effort created because of inefficient presentation of material and not the material itself. Examples of the causes of extraneous load may be slides that are badly organised with small font sizes, lecturers who go astray very often, and confusing instructions. Extraneous load is a futile effort because it does not add anything to comprehension and decision-making. Nevertheless, extraneous load has its bright side in that it is controllable since it emerges from bad formatting and not material. Extraneous load, thus, can be reduced via proper formatting and language. For example, a cluttered slide with ten bullet points and three different fonts creates extraneous load, even when the underlying facts are simple. 

Germane load

Germane load, conversely, is constructive cognitive effort that involves processing of the information by connecting it to old notions. When a person connects new information with old concepts, it means that he creates schemas for organising and future retrieval of the information (van Merriënboer et al., 2003). For example, a nurse who links a new medication’s side effects to a similar drug she already knows is investing germane load, effort that strengthens learning rather than wasting it.

The Total Cognitive Load is defined as the product of the sum of the three: the intrinsic (the level of difficulty of the content), the extraneous (the presentation of materials in an ineffective manner) and the germane (the effort put forth by the learner to acquire new knowledge). What CLT seeks to address is not the issue of removing the element of difficulty, which cannot be avoided, but rather reducing the extraneous cognitive load. 

How Excessive Information Affects Learning, Memory, and Decision-Making 

The influence of cognitive overload on learning, memory and decision-making differs. In the case of learning, it does not allow the formation of schemata. The inability of the learner to create connections between new information and existing knowledge leads to ineffective learning and forgetting. Consequently, it causes the superficial learning of information (Sweller et al., 1998). 

However, cognitive overload influences memory irrespective of the learning process. Our working memory can keep up to five to nine items, or seven plus or minus two (Miller, 1956). When its capacity is reached, nothing else can be processed. It explains why we cannot memorise telephone numbers in conversation or in discussion via the Internet (Baddeley, 1992).

On the other hand, cognitive overload has a significant impact on the decision-making process. Overloaded individuals tend to use heuristics and do not analyse all alternatives (Eppler &  Mengis, 2004). People become impulsive; they use various biases like the anchoring effect, or, at last, they are not able to choose one variant and remain passive. This problem was considered by Iyengar and Lepper in 2000. They found that in the case of facing too many variants,  people became unsatisfied and did not want to choose among them. 

Both specialists and common individuals may be overloaded. For example, it concerns doctors who work with high-technology equipment, employees who receive numerous notifications or students who deal with unstructured resources. In addition to poor results of work, cognitive overload may cause fatigue and unwillingness to deal with any complex information. 

Read More: The Psychology of Overstimulation: How Cognitive Overload Leads to Emotional Underfulfillment

Practical Strategies to Reduce Cognitive Overload 

The extraneous load is the most manageable component of CLT. The following recommendations are designed to minimise the extraneous load, allowing more space for germane load and meaningful learning. 

For education

• Dissect educational materials into small pieces that should be learned separately, not all together. 
• Avoid on-screen text and use images and voiceover instead. Processing the text takes much more effort. 
• Never forget to cluster the relevant data, which will help you memorise it.
• Create a distraction-free environment, reducing the number of competing stimuli. 
• Spacing learning sessions will allow your schema to consolidate and avoid the overload. 
• Restructuring of the material rather than its simple rereading will enhance germane load. 

Read More: Exercise May Help Improve Working Memory in People with Depression

For professionals

• Be sure about your priorities and do one task at a time. 
• Use checklists and templates in order to transfer the information from your memory to paper or screen. 
• Figure out small parts of big decisions in order to reduce the overload of the working memory. 

Reducing the overload doesn’t imply a reduction of the content. It only implies presentation of it using simpler language and visualisation. 

Conclusion 

Cognitive Load Theory provides a good explanation of why some activities are difficult to perform and what the source of these difficulties may be. There are three types of cognitive loads: intrinsic, which refers to the inherent complexity of the subject matter; extraneous, which is related to improper presentation of the material; and germane, which refers to the effort spent on learning. These terms allow us to define the nature of the problem and find ways to solve it. 

However, disorganisation and excess of information create many more difficulties than just being irritating. They overburden working memory and hinder the process of learning. But there is still hope. Extra load can be managed. Clear language, proper organisation, and step-by-step presentation of information do a great job. This applies to teaching, writing and everything else in your life. The key question is always the same one: does this particular presentation of the information help me or not? 

References + 

• Baddeley, A. (1992). Working memory. Science, 255(5044), 556–559. 
• Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 24(1), 87–114. 
• Eppler, M. J., & Mengis, J. (2004). The concept of information overload: A review of literature from organisation science, accounting, marketing, MIS, and related disciplines. The  Information Society, 20(5), 325–344. 
• Iyengar, S. S., & Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006. 
• Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81–97. 
• Paas, F., Renkl, A., & Sweller, J. (2003). Cognitive load theory and instructional design: Recent developments. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 1–4. 
• Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive  Science, 12(2), 257–285. 
• Sweller, J. (2010). Element interactivity and intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load.  Educational Psychology Review, 22(2), 123–138. 
• Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. G. W. C. (1998). Cognitive architecture and instructional design. Educational Psychology Review, 10(3), 251–296. 
• van Merriënboer, J. J. G., Kirschner, P. A., & Kester, L. (2003). Taking the load off a learner’s mind: Instructional design for complex learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 5–13.