{"id":280,"date":"2013-12-06T14:19:17","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T14:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/?p=280"},"modified":"2015-05-08T08:13:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T08:13:18","slug":"cognitive-load-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/?p=280","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Load Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In\u00a0cognitive psychology,\u00a0<b>cognitive load<\/b>\u00a0is the load related to the executive control of\u00a0<a title=\"Working memory\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/?p=256\">working memory<\/a>\u00a0(WM). Theories contend that during complex learning activities the amount of information and interactions that must be processed simultaneously can either under-load, or overload the finite amount of working memory one possesses. All elements must be processed before meaningful learning can continue (Paas el al, 2004).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Introduction to Cognitive Load Theory\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9ZcjWzXTHng?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"Ref\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cognitive load refers to the information that is processed in the limited short term memory during\u00a0learning. There are three types of cognitive load defined within Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller,\u00a01998).\u00a0Intrinsic cognitive load is the natural complexity of information that is presented to the\u00a0learner. An element is anything that needs to be learned, and element interactivity is the mechanism\u00a0underlying intrinsic cognitive load.<\/p>\n<p>If the interactivity between the elements in working memory is\u00a0high then the intrinsic cognitive load is high (Sweller, 2010). Extraneous cognitive load refers to\u00a0elemental activity that does not serve the instructional goal, and needs to be reduced by the\u00a0instructional designer.<\/p>\n<p>Germane cognitive load allows generative and constructive processing,\u00a0through which the learner makes connections between the information and prior knowledge.\u00a0Cognitive overload occurs when the demands of the learning task exceed the processing capacity of\u00a0the cognitive system.<\/p>\n<p>Many instructional procedures require learners to engage in cognitive\u00a0activities that impose an unnecessarily heavy load on working memory. Information and activities\u00a0should be designed in ways that optimise cognitive processing and lead to better formation of\u00a0mental models and better retrieval of the information by the learner (Tzanavari &amp; Tsapatsoulis,\u00a02010).<\/p>\n<p>Mayer &amp; Moreno (2003) distinguish among three kinds of cognitive demands: essential processing,\u00a0incidental processing and representational holding.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Essential processing refers to the five core\u00a0processes in the cognitive theory of multimedia learning: selecting words, selecting images,\u00a0organizing words, organizing images, and integrating. The instructional designer must allow for as\u00a0much free space in the working memory as possible for essential processing to be maximised.<\/li>\n<li>Incidental processing refers to processing that is not required for making sense of the presented\u00a0information.<\/li>\n<li>Representational holding refers to holding verbal or visual representations in the\u00a0working memory in order to understand the information.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Please also see <a title=\"CLT Michael Seery\" href=\"http:\/\/michaelseery.com\/home\/index.php\/2010\/09\/cognitive-considerations-in-designing-e-resources\/\" target=\"_blank\">Michaels Seery&#8217;s article<\/a> on Cognitive Load Theory.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>References<\/p>\n<p>Mayer, R.E, Moreno, R. (2003) Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning.\u00a0Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43\u201352.<\/p>\n<p>Paas, F., Renkel, A., &amp; Sweller, J. (2004). &#8220;Cognitive Load Theory: Instructional Implications of the Interaction between Information Structures and Cognitive Architecture&#8221;.\u00a0<i>Instructional Science<\/i>\u00a0<b>32<\/b>: 1\u20138. (taken from\u00a0Wikipedia (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cognitive_load\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cognitive_load<\/a>) 6 Dec 2013)<\/p>\n<p>Sweller, J., Van Merrienboer J.J.V., &amp; Paas F.G.W.C. (1998). Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design. Educational Psychology Review, 10 (3)<\/p>\n<p>Sweller, J. (2010) Element Interactivity and Intrinsic, Extraneous, and Germane Cognitive Load.\u00a0Educational Psychological Review, 22, 123-138.<\/p>\n<p>Tzanavari, A., Tsapatsoulis, N. (2010). Affective, Interactive and Cognitive Methods for E-learning\u00a0Design. Hershey. PA: Information Science Reference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In\u00a0cognitive psychology,\u00a0cognitive load\u00a0is the load related to the executive control of\u00a0working memory\u00a0(WM). Theories contend that during complex learning activities the amount of information and interactions that must be processed simultaneously can either under-load, or overload the finite amount of working memory one possesses. All elements must be processed before meaningful learning can continue (Paas el [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,37,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-instructional-design-and-eauthoring","category-lit-review","category-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":855,"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hughmclain.ie\/ePortfolioDIT\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}