cognitive load

(noun)

The total amount of mental effort being used in working memory.

Related Terms

Examples of cognitive load in the following topics:

  • Attention

    • "Cognitive load" refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in working memory.
    • Brains work on a similar principle, called the cognitive load theory.
    • "Cognitive load" refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in working memory.
    • Attention requires working memory; therefore devoting attention to something increases cognitive load.
    • Each task increases cognitive load; attention must be divided among all of the component tasks to perform them.

  • Cognitive Tool Affordance

    • What do cognitive tools offer teachers and students?
    • Many cognitive tools have multiple roles.
    • According to Kozma (1991) these multiple encounters and processes with information result in a cognitive tool amplifying cognition (p. 24).
    • When students examine the relationships within information, they are faced with many cognitive tasks; therefore, cognitive tools share the "cognitive load" of these processes (Iiyoshi, et al, p. 288).
    • The Roles of Cognitive Tools, Examples, and Specific Technologies

  • Classification and Categorization

    • This process is vital to cognition.
    • Our minds are not capable of treating every object as unique; otherwise, we would experience too great a cognitive load to be able to process the world around us.
    • However, over the history of cognitive science and psychology, three general approaches to categorization have been named.

  • Aging and the Nervous System

    • Dementia (from Latin de- "apart, away" + mens (genitive mentis) "mind") is the progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging.
    • Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration together with declining activities of daily living and neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes .
    • As the disorder progresses, cognitive (intellectual) impairment extends to the domains of language (aphasia), skilled movements (apraxia), recognition (agnosia), and those functions (such as decision-making and planning) closely related to the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain as they become disconnected from the limbic system, reflecting extension of the underlying pathological process.
    • For late onset AD (LOAD), only one susceptibility gene has so far been identified: the epsilon 4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene.

  • Basic Load-Bearing Construction

    • A load-bearing wall is a wall that bears a load resting upon it by conducting its weight to the foundation of the structure.
    • A load-bearing wall is a wall that supports the weight of a load resting upon it by conducting its weight to the foundation of the structure.
    • In housing, load bearing walls are most common in the construction method known as 'platform framing'.
    • This means each load-bearing wall sits on a wall sill plate, which is the bottom horizontal member of the wall.
    • A load-bearing wall is a wall that supports the weight of a load resting upon it by conducting its weight to the foundation of the structure.

  • Defining Job Satisfaction

    • Job satisfaction falls into two levels: affective job satisfaction and cognitive job satisfaction.
    • Cognitive job satisfaction is how satisfied employees feel concerning some aspect of their job, such as pay, hours, or benefits.
    • Demands can be characterized as a communication load: "the rate and complexity of communication inputs an individual must process in a particular time frame."

  • Stages of Cognitive Development

    • Review the four major stages of cognitive development: Piaget's Stages (http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?

  • Cognitive Psychology

    • "Cognition" refers to thinking and memory processes, and "cognitive development" refers to long-term changes in these processes.
    • Major areas of research in cognitive psychology include perception, memory, categorization, knowledge representation, numerical cognition, language, and thinking.
    • Cognitive psychology is one of the more recent additions to psychological research.
    • Though there are examples of cognitive approaches from earlier researchers, cognitive psychology really developed as a subfield within psychology in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
    • Piaget is best known for his stage theory of cognitive development.

  • What is Pedagogy?

    • Modern pedagogy has been strongly influenced by the theories of three major heavy-weights in the science of human development: Jean Piaget's cognitive theory of development and Lev Vygotsky and Jerome Bruner's social interaction and cultural theory.
    • As a field, instructional design is historically and traditionally rooted in cognitive and behavioral psychology, though recently Constructivism (learning theory) has influenced thinking in the field.
    • There was little to no distinction between "learning to load a rifle and learning to solve a complex mathematical problem".
    • Gagné 's understanding and theories of human learning added significantly to understanding the stages in cognitive processing and instructions.
    • This idea encouraged instructional designers to include cognitive needs a top-down instructional approach.

  • Lever Systems

    • Depending on the relative positioning of the three components levers allow for the moving of heavy loads, or to move a load further or faster when a force is applied.
    • A large force is required to move a relatively small load, however the speed and distance at which that load can be moved is greatly increased.
    • In a first class lever the load and force sit on either side of the pivot, like a seesaw.
    • In a third-class lever the force is applied between the load and the pivot.
    • The load is the forearm and any objects being carred.