Cognitive Load Theory

Cognitive load theory uses evolutionary theory to consider human cognitive architecture and uses that architecture to devise novel, instructional procedures. The theory assumes that knowledge can be divided into biologically primary knowledge that we have evolved to acquire and biologically secondary knowledge that is important for cultural reasons. Secondary knowledge, unlike primary knowledge, is the subject of instruction. It is processed in a manner that is analogous to the manner in which biological evolution processes information. When dealing with secondary knowledge, human cognition requires a very large information store, the contents of which are acquired largely by obtaining information from other information stores. Novel information is generated by a random generate and test procedure with only very limited amounts of novel information able to be processed at any given time. In contrast, very large amounts of organized information stored in the information store can be processed in order to generate complex action. This architecture has been used to generate instructional procedures, summarized in this chapter.