Sources of Cognitive Load
Althea Need Kaminske,
The Learning Scientists,
Jul 14, 2023
I'm just going to come out and say it: there's no such thing as cognitive load. The concept of 'cognitive load' is at least as mythical as 'learning styles'. You can read about cognitive load theory here and talked about it here and here, if you wish (links provided by the author), but unless you believe the brain-as-computer metaphor is literally true (and who does, really?) then cognitive load theory is essentially undefined. "According to Sweller (2010), cognitive load describes the allocation of working memory resources... Intrinsic load describes working memory allocation that deals with the task itself and is influenced by the complexity of the task itself ... extraneous load describes working memory allocation that is not intrinsic to the task itself, but how it is designed or the environment it takes place in." This tells us about the content, but nothing about how the brain is, um, 'processing' it. If you push cognitive load theory at all, what you get is essentially a theory that says "complex content is hard, so make things simple if you want people to remember them."
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