Cognitive load theory and presentation design

 Intended to alter instructional design to better match human cognitive architecture

Assumptions of cognitive load theory

 Working memory can hold no more than 5-9 pieces of information at a time
o Note: working memory not same as short term memory. Refers to the amount of info
the brain can hold and manipulate at once…at one point in time
 Working memory can not process more than 2-4 elements simultaneously
 Cannot deal with information for longer than a few seconds, almost all info lost after 20 seconds
unless it’s refreshed by rehearsal
 These assumptions only hold for new information that the individual takes in via the senses.
There isn’t a known limit for working with long-term memory
 Human expertise comes from the knowledge which gets arranged as schemas by the long-term
memory. Basically, you can’t build experience if nothing gets encoded in the long-term memory
 Expertise builds as individuals combine simple elements/ideas/info into progressively more
complex ones

How to develop schemas

 Chunks of information get related together
 These elements come together when solving problems
 Individual can progressively add more info to the schema, it gets bigger
 Can receive schematized info from other people
 Organize info into a logical arrangement. “The crazy-eyed scalawag dressed his equine friend
with clothing made of substandard oats” vs. scalawag the crazy-eyed equine dressed clothing his
friend oats of made substandard”

The more the schemas get used, the more automatic they become. (ex. Disease state and treatment
recognition)

Cognitive load – the types

  Intrinsic cognitive load
o Refers to the baseline level of complexity of a concept and the minimum cognitive
resources that must be dedicated to making sense of the incoming information
o 5 senses involved
o The more complex and unfamiliar the information is, the more cognitive resources that
are needed to make sense of it.
 Extraneous load
o Imposed by the instructional procedures. Loads that are imposed that don’t necessarily
need to be there. The non-essential aspects of the presented material
o More extraneous load means the learner won’t have as much working memory to deal
with that and the intrinsic load… So if you’ve got a high intrinsic load, the extrinsic load
should be decreased as much as possible (design principles)
 Germane load
o Cognitive resources dedicated to encoding information to short term or long term
memory
o It’s the amount of working memory that’s used to develop schemas for the intrinsic load

Remember, working memory can only hold a few things for a few seconds so the more extraneous load
there is, the worse off the learner will be in regards to formulating schemas

Design Strategies
 Goal: prevent overload, optimize germane load, decrease extraneous load

How to decrease cognitive overload and maximize learning

Overload Problem #1: Split-attention effect
 An animation of basic neurotransmission is being played and the on-screen text describing the
process is being displayed below. Have to split attention between watching and reading. Only a
fraction of material can then be put into working memory for understanding

Solution - Modality principle

 Remove the text and provide audio commentary. Decreases processing demand on visual
channel

Overload Problem #2: High intrinsic load

  An animation and narration of the biochemistry of neurotransmission is being played. Video
played at normal speed, covers process from start to finish. This leads to the learner trying to
process a large amount of unfamiliar information where the verbal and visual channels get
overloaded. Learner won’t have time to place the information into organized schemas, so a lot
of the info gets lost in the working memory.

Solution #1 – Chunking / segmenting

 Break the info down into several segments with fewer pieces of intrinsic info in each. Learner
can better organize the information that way.
 Ex. Which is easier to process/remember: 918273645 or 918 273 645

Solution #2 – Pretraining
 If material doesn’t lend itself to segmentation, can pre-train on the components of what is to be
learned
 Building a mental model involves 2 steps
o Component model formation – How each independent part works
o Causal model – How the independent parts work together
 If info isn’t provided in advance re: components, learners will have to split their cognitive
processes between component model formation and causal model formation, leading to
decreased overall understanding

Decreasing extraneous load / external factors

Problem – High amount of extraneous load decreases ability to process

 Example – Viewing a powerpoint slide illustrating the process of neurotransmission that has
sound effects and/or a cartoon pic of an axon with googly eyes in the corner. Leads to larger
extraneous load.

Solution – Coherence Principle

 Remove words, pictures, or sounds that are not absolutely relevant to the slide/video/animation

Problem - Complex info with a high intrinsic load is being presented and it’s not possible to remove any
extraneous load. Leads to cognitive overload and decreases germane load

Solution – Signaling Principle

 Highlight the essential material. Use arrows or other cues to highlight

Problem – Redundancy
 Example – Simultaneous animation, narration, and onscreen text (think of watching a TV show
with volume up and closed captioning on)
Solution – Remove extraneous info (onscreen text in above example)

Problem – Intrinsic info is presented in confusing manner

 Example – Diagram of heart is presented with numbers representing parts. The key is located
elsewhere. Working memory is used up trying to match numbers to the key and transpose
information
Solution – Align words and pictures

Problem – Lack of temporal contiguity

 Example – The process of neurotransmission is described on one slide. Then an animation is
presented on the second slide (no narration). Learner has to retain high intrinsic load with no
frame of reference to develop a schema and then try to apply that info to the animation.
Solution
 Synchronize animation and narration.

Other tips for cognitive learning (face to face)

 Goal free principle
o Replace conventional tasks with goal-free tasks
 E.g., change ‘What is the most likely diagnosis for these symptoms’ to ‘Name as
many potential diagnoses as you can based upon these symptoms’
o Idea = if a learner is given a specific goal (name THE diagnosis), they spend more time
reasoning backwards. A high extraneous load is imposed. If the specific goal is
removed, mind is freed to find associations (chunking, schema formation)
 Worked example principle
o If you give a student a problem with a worked example, they’ll spend more time
studying those examples. In an unworked example, they have to search for solutions
with their weak problem-solving methods (because they don’t have the appropriate
schemas developed), and the extraneous load will be needlessly increased.
o As the learner builds more schema, can begin to remove worked examples
 Completion principle
o Give learners partially completed tasks. Decreases demand on their working problem
space, provides partial examples to use for schema development