Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later

By John Sweller, J. V. van Merriënboer, Fred Paas. Educational Psychology Review, 2019

1,883 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cognitive load theory was introduced in the 1980s as an instructional design theory based on several uncontroversial aspects of human cognitive architecture. Our knowledge of many of the characteristics of working memory, long-term memory and the relations between them had been well-established for many decades prior to the introduction of the theory. Curiously, this knowledge had had a limited impact on the field of instructional design with most instructional design recommendations proceeding as though working memory and long-term memory did not exist. In contrast, cognitive load theory emphasised that all novel information first is processed by a capacity and duration limited working memory and then stored in an unlimited long-term memory for later use. Once information is stored in long-term memory, the capacity and duration limits of working memory disappear transforming our ability to function. By the late 1990s, sufficient data had been collected using the theory to warrant an extended analysis resulting in the publication of Sweller et al. (Educational Psychology Review, 10, 251–296, 1998). Extensive further theoretical and empirical work have been carried out since that time and this paper is an attempt to summarise the last 20 years of cognitive load theory and to sketch directions for future research.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e28d73214751d51c3f46a867920be41c49c45130

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Artificial Intelligence

1. Fred Paas
2. J. V. van Merriënboer
3. Alexander Renkl
4. John Sweller
5. Michael Kerres
6. Josef Buchner
7. Katja Buntins
8. Tamara van Gog

In Developmental and Educational Psychology

1. Fred Paas
2. J. V. van Merriënboer
3. Alexander Renkl
4. John Sweller
5. Tamara van Gog
6. Julian Roelle
7. Inga Glogger-Frey
8. Julia Waldeyer

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. Fred Paas
2. J. V. van Merriënboer
3. Alexander Renkl
4. John Sweller
5. Tamara van Gog
6. Michael Kerres
7. Josef Buchner
8. Katja Buntins

Citations in the corpus

• Cognitive-Load Theory: Methods to Manage Working Memory Load in the Learning of Complex Tasks (2020, background): “For a recent overview of the resulting effects, see Sweller et al. (2019).”
• The Self-Regulation-View in Writing-to-Learn: Using Journal Writing to Optimize Cognitive Load in Self-Regulated Learning (2020, methodology): “We suggest that the genre-free principle in journal writing can be considered, at least on a more general level, as a particular variant of the goal-free effect in cognitive load theory (e.g., Paas andKirschner 2012; Sweller et al. 2019).”
• Studying the effect of AI Code Generators on Supporting Novice Learners in Introductory Programming (2023, positive): “Cognitive load theory defines the demand that a situation or task places on a learner’s working memory [80] and is based in part on the learner’s prior knowledge and the complexity of the task or material [22].”
• The impact of augmented reality on cognitive load and performance: A systematic review (2021, background): “…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 imposing a load in its own right ’ (Sweller et al., 2019, p. 264).”