Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design: Recent Developments

Cognitive load theory (CLT) originated in the 1980s and underwent substantial development and expansion in the 1990s by researchers from around the globe. As the articles in this special issue demonstrate, it is a major theory providing a framework for investigations into cognitive processes and instructional design. By simultaneously considering the structure of information and the cognitive architecture that allows learners to process that information, cognitive load theorists have been able to generate a unique variety of new and sometimes counterintuitive instructional designs and procedures. The genesis of this special issue emerged from an international symposium on CLT that was organized at the 2001 Biannual Conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Fribourg, Switzerland. Most of the articles that follow are based on contributions to that symposium and discuss the most recent work carried out within the cognitive load framework. Before summarizing those articles, we provide a brief outline of CLT. Although the information that learners must process varies on many dimensions, the extent to which relevant elements interact is a critical feature. Information varies on a continuum from low to high in element interactivity. Each element of low-element interactivity material can be understood and learned individually without consideration of any other elements. Learning what the usual 12 function keys effect in a photo-editing program provides an example. Element interactivity is low because each item can be understood and learned without reference to any other items. In contrast, learning how to edit a photo on a computer provides an example of high-element interactivity. Changing the color tones, darkness, and contrast of the picture cannot be considered independently because they interact. The elements of high-element interactivity material can be learned individually, but they cannot be understood until all of the elements and their interactions are processed simultaneously. As a consequence, high-element interactivity material is difficult to understand. Element interactivity is the driver of our first category of cognitive load. That category is called intrinsic cognitive load because demands on working memory capacity imposed by element interactivity are intrinsic to the material being learned. Different materials differ in their levels of element interactivity and thus intrinsic cognitive load, and they cannot be altered by instructional manipulations; only a simpler learning task that omits some interacting elements can be chosen to reduce this type of load. The omission of essential, interacting elements will compromise sophisticated understanding but may be unavoidable with very complex, high-element interactivity tasks. Subsequent additions of omitted elements will permit understanding to occur. Simultaneous processing of all essential elements must occur eventually despite the high-intrinsic cognitive load because it is only then that understanding commences. One may argue that this aspect of the structure of information has driven the evolution of human cognitive architecture. An architecture is required that can handle high-element interactivity material. Human cognitive architecture met this requirement by its combination of working and long-term EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGIST, 38(1), 1–4 Copyright © 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.