3-2: Cognitive Load Theory

Our next piece of ed theory for self-guided learners is a newer one. Cognitive Load Theory was formulated in 1991. While the entire paper outlining the theory is fascinating, we can distill it roughly for use here.

CLT Explained

Cognitive Load, as the name suggests, concerns the mental labor of learning. The computer is generally a terrible metaphor for human cognition, but this theory is roughly about managing the work capacity, or "system resources" available during learning. CLT breaks learning tasks into three distinct types of work: intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load.

Intrinsic load refers to the natural difficulty of any given task. There's no getting around the mental work of reading a difficult text, figuring out how to implement a new function in code, or solving a polynomial equation. This load decreases with experience in a given area, but there's a floor: every task worth doing requires some effort.

Germane load is the mental work associated with the learning task at hand. Think of this as "net new" materials that you have to actively grapple with synthesize. It's what you're there for, the new material not yet fully grasped.

Extraneous load is anything involved in a learning task not directly related to learning objectives. I tend to think of this as "setup" work, especially in technical learning endeavors. In cybersecurity and IT courses, lab exercises are prone to high levels of extraneous load—you spend so much time and energy getting the lab set up, that you've exhausted your capacity before arriving at the true learning material.

CLT and Resource Choice

How does this relate to choosing learning resources? Different offerings will pay more or less attention to how cognitive load is distributed. Whether you fully buy the theory or not, I think there's value in recognizing that learning exercises can sometimes be either more intrinsically difficult than appropriate for your level, or have far too much extraneous work that does not respect your time.

Time and energy really are the heart of the matter here. Your time and energy are precious, and you need to find learning resources that respect them. There are instructors that are more interested in hearing themselves talk than providing relevant information (see, like, most of YouTube). There are books that assume far too much prior knowledge of potential readers, leaving you lost in unnecessarily high intrinsic load. Minimizing both of these is critical when choosing learning resources.

Again, I am not here to make specific recommendations, since I don't know what your learning journey is. But I am here to remind you that, as you begin selecting and using learning resources, you should perform some self-checks about how they're performing for you. Here are some valuable questions to ask.

• Am I mostly understanding what is being said?
  • If not, intrinsic load may be too high
• Am I spending enough time on the actual thing I want to learn, not setup?
  • It not, extraneous load may be too high
• Do I feel challenged, but not overwhelmed, by the learning tasks?
  • Intrinsic load inside germane may be too high

These question can help evaluate not only whether the resources you've chosen work for you, but whether you are ready for them. It's entirely possible for a given resource to be worthwhile at another time, after you've built more of a foundation elsewhere.

At all costs, you want to avoid needlessly banging your head against a wall. Learning should be challenging, not discouraging. Information should be rich, but not opaque. Nobody is assigning this work but you, so make sure you aren't wasting your limited study time with resources that don't work for you.