Intrinsic and Extraneous Cognitive Load

Abstract

Learners must process instructional information in working memory. The load imposed on working memory by that instructional information can be divided into categories depending on its function (Paas, Renkl, & Sweller, 2003, 2004; Sweller, van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998; van Merriënboer & Sweller, 2005). Some of the working memory load is imposed by the intrinsic nature of the information and that load is called ‘intrinsic cognitive load’. It is imposed by the basic structure of the information that the learner needs to acquire for achieving learning goals irrespective of the instructional procedures used.