Cognitive load theory, educational research, and instructional design: some food for thought

By Ton de Jong. 2010

1,146 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cognitive load is a theoretical notion with an increasingly central role in the educational research literature. The basic idea of cognitive load theory is that cognitive capacity in working memory is limited, so that if a learning task requires too much capacity, learning will be hampered. The recommended remedy is to design instructional systems that optimize the use of working memory capacity and avoid cognitive overload. Cognitive load theory has advanced educational research considerably and has been used to explain a large set of experimental findings. This article sets out to explore the open questions and the boundaries of cognitive load theory by identifying a number of problematic conceptual, methodological and application-related issues. It concludes by presenting a research agenda for future studies of cognitive load.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/975bb78bb2981a4886aa0e0c609bf80bdcb1092b

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In Artificial Intelligence

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Citations in the corpus

The impact of augmented reality on cognitive load and performance: A systematic review (2021, background): “There was a long debate on how many load types are necessary to explain cognitive processing of information (for an overview see de Jong, 2010; Kalyuga, 2011) resulting in a re-definition of GCL as having a ‘ redistributive function from extraneous to intrinsic aspects of the task rather than…”
Measuring cognitive load with subjective rating scales during problem solving: differences between immediate and delayed ratings (2015, background): “Accordingly there is a large body of empirical studies inspired by CLT that support its implications for instructional design (for overviews see de Jong 2010; Paas et al. 2003a, b; Plass et al. 2010; Sweller et al. 2011).”
A design framework for enhancing engagement in student-centered learning: own it, learn it, and share it (2016, background): “Additionally, de Jong (2010) proposed that existing research on cognitive load needed to be extended to explore approaches to help learners manage cognitive load during SCL.”
Pedagogical Agent Signaling of Multiple Visual Engineering Representations: The Case of the Young Female Agent (2013, background): “Multiple representations without instructional support often require the student to undertake tedious search processes that are not beneficial to learning and can be considered extraneous cognitive load (de Jong, 2010; Sweller, van Merrienboer, & Paas, 1998).”
Integrating cognitive load theory and concepts of human-computer interaction (2010, background): “De Jong (2009) and Schnotz and Kürschner (2007) pointed out very plausibly that extraneous, intrinsic, and germane load may be interrelated beyond simple addition.”
Understanding Cognitive Load in Digital and Online Learning: a New Perspective on Extraneous Cognitive Load (2021, background): “It needs to be noted that the specificity of instructional goals has been considered in previous discussions of CLT (e.g., de Jong, 2010; Kalyuga & Singh, 2016).”
Getting the point: Tracing worked examples enhances learning (2015, background): “…should be directed to the main information of instructional materials to reduce unnecessary visual search, avoiding the waste of visuo-spatial resources (Britton, Glynn, Meyer, & Penland, 1982; de Jong, 2010; Loman & Mayer, 1983; Mautone & Mayer, 2001; Sweller, Van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998).”