Matthew Levell

Boise State University

Edtech 504

February 16, 2011

Overview:

Cognitive Load theory can be defined as a theory that states that each individual as a set amount of working/short term memory. This can be calculated to be about seven minutes give or take. After that what we have in our short term memory can be converted into long term memory. When information is stored in long term memory is stored as chunks or information or one could call it a schema (Gerjets 2004).

Contributors:

There has been many an individual who help contribute to this theory. The first that comes to mind is G. A. Miller, his work discusses the ability of ones working memory to only be able to story information for seven minutes. Later Cognitive Load Theory was developed by John Sweller while he was working on studying problems solving. The theory has roots in Cognitivism, which highlights information processes.

Major Principals:

Cognitive Load Theory can be based on few assumptions. That our working memory is short and can only hold information of seven minutes and then through chunking we can overcome this limited memory. There are three different types of cognitive load intrinsic, extraneous, and germane loads (Schnotz 2007). Intrinsic cognitive load is when the objective to be learned is inhertantly difficult and can be broken up into small schemas “subschemas” and then late brought back together. The second cognitive load is extraneous which can be stated as happening, because of instructor layout of instruction or format(Sweller 2008). Germaine load is where the learner is using there working memory to organize the new material to the prior knowledge. (DeLeeuw 2008).

Application:

Cognitive Load theory can be applied to the classroom in a number of ways. To help with lowering extraneous load by giving completed worked examples. An example I would use would be writing a research paper have the students look at the work first so they know how it should look. You can also break up a learning objective into small parts then later reintroduce them together this helps lower intrinsic cognitive load (Merrie¨nboer, 2010). Example I would use would be my students math book which breaks math problems down into several small parts then slowly puts them together again. This is especially true when working with division.

References: van Merriënboer, J. G., & Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory in health professional education: Design principles and strategies. Medical Education, 44(1), 85-93. doi:10.1111/j.1365- 2923.2009.03498.x