Cognitive Overload

What is cognitive overload?

In cognitive psychology, cognitive load is nothing but the number of active memory resources. Cognitive overload, by definition, is “a condition in which a person is given too much information at once, or too many tasks at the same time, resulting in an inability to perform or process the information.”

Let’s try to understand what are the sources of active memory. John Soler, an Australian educational psychologist, divides a person’s working memory into three areas of activity: internal load, external load, and dependent load.

Internal cognitive load is the effort associated with a specific task. You can relate this to learning. Another example can be teaching an algebraic expression to a second-grade student!

Extrinsic cognitive load refers to how information or tasks are presented to the learner. You can relate this to how information is presented. Through text, charts, or infographics. This kind of cognitive load is something that we as learning designers can take care of so that the person does not suffer from cognitive overload.

Cognitive load refers to the work done to create a permanent store of knowledge. To put it simply, it refers to the mental schemas that learners develop during instruction that you use to create effective learning. Instead of presenting a piece of text…