Defined
As a response to the explosion of multimedia-based learning due to the emergence of the digital era in the late 20th century, researchers found the concept of “cognitive load” to be a serious challenge to meaningful learning. Because humans are limited in how much information they can process at one time, being bombarded with multiple sensory stimuli at the same time interferes with their ability to retain new information long enough to be transferred into long-term memory.
Methodology
In order to avoid cognitive overload, instructional design materials need to abide by the following principles:
- Break content into manageable chunks to help working memory more efficientlt process the material.
- Avoid extraneous information that can be distracting. “Less is more” is a good rule.
- Reduce the “split attention” effect by making sure that information presented is a good balance between the visual and verbal channels.
- Make sure graphics and explanatory text close enough together so that they are presented on the same plane instead of making the learner go back and forth between the two.
- Do not read text that is being presented. Redundancy also causes cognitive load. (Guyan, 2017)
Learning Scenario
As part of assignment 4, I had to apply the principles to an instructional material I randomly chose from the internet. Below is the description and brief analysis.
I took a drawing class last year and I have been trying to continue some sketching on my own. I came across this very basic tutorial on how to draw a linear perspective on Instructables.com.
Online Instructable: How to draw--Basic Linear Perspective
Cognitive Load Principles
Adhered
The instructional material only includes text and pictures demonstrating the technique in 9 segmented steps. There was no extraneous material present or distracting background colors or noise, adhering well to the Coherence Principal.
Violated
Unfortunately, the text that corresponded to the picture in the instruction was not placed next to one another, instead, the pictures were grouped together above the corresponding text. This violates the Contiguity Principal and creates a split-attention effect. I had to keep going back and forth between the written instruction and the pictures given to illustrate it, and it was not always clear which picture corresponded to which text. The better approach would have been to embed the pictures within the corresponding text or annotate the pictures with the instructional text.
In addition, while there were 9 distinct segments, I think that the instructions would have benefitted by being broken into sub-segments by either numbers or bullets.
References
Guyan, M. (2017, July 20). 5 Ways To Reduce Cognitive Load In eLearning. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/5-ways-to-reduce-cognitive-load-in-elearning
Mayer, Richard & Moreno, Roxana. (2005). A Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning: Implications for Design Principles. 91. In Durso, F. (Ed.), Handbook of Applied Cognition. Wiley
Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychologist,38(1), 43-52. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep3801_6
Sorden, S. D. (2005). A Cognitive Approach to Instructional Design for Multimedia Learning. Retrieved June 12, 2019, fromhttp://inform.nu/Articles/Vol8/v8p263-279Sorden34.pdf. Informing Science Journal. Volume 8, 2005.
